


Home Sweet Home

by ImaLilFangirl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, M/M, Major Original Character(s), Multi, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:08:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaLilFangirl/pseuds/ImaLilFangirl
Summary: MY FIRST VOLTRON FANFICTIONMika Porter may seem like an ordinary smarty pants that knows much about escaping anything at the Galaxy Garrison, but when unknown living beings from a place called the "Galra Empire" bring threats to the engineers, technicians, and pilots, Mika is forced to think about her past and learn more about her family secrets to save Earth.The day her journey began, her most trusted friend, Pidge Gunderson, and two mutuals of Pidge went missing after a strange ship crashed, and an even weirder thing was that a blue robotic lion came out from underground the next morning. Pidge had drawings of this in his secret bag Mika wouldn't dare touch, but there were five colors to it."I guess Pidge lost his silver colored pencil."





	1. Chapter 1

Before you begin reading this interesting little autobiography of mine, I think I should introduce myself. I promise you it will be useful!

At this point in the memoir, my name to strangers like you is Mika Porter. I will become more honest with some parts when the time is right. It's not about how much I trust you (I mean, how can I tell your story if I don't even know you're reading!)

By the way, I am very sorry for my abnormal writing style! I have ADHD. It stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. People with it tend to get distracted easily! In my case, I tend to write like I talk! You can tell, right? Well, I hope you can!

I am currently nineteen years old. I was eighteen in the actual story which will officially begin soon!

Over the years, I've become very skilled at escaping anything. Ropes, locked doors, people, you name it! That was probably the only good part of my time before getting accepted as a student in the Galaxy Garrison (it's a nifty space air force boot camp thing).

The three courses taught in the Garrison are how to be an engineer, pilot, and technician. Most people are only taught one of the three and are placed in either a cargo or fighter class, but my intelligence level gave me the chance to be a special type of student called an officer. Officers take classes for all three course types along with other training lessons. A few of them include instructor training classes, patrol guard training classes, many types of assistant classes, radio communication classes, and so on.

I would do exceptional in my classes, and even though most people would assume that I don't have any spare time to do anything fun, I actually would have plenty of Mika Time. I like to call my treat yourself moments "Mika Time" because anything else doesn't sound smooth in my head when I try to describe the difference between my busy times and my leisure time.

A lot of people wonder and ask me what my secrets were for how I managed to have above average results on tests in my long, busy, continuous, never-ending list of classes and have plenty of time to spend as Mika Time instead of studying or finishing anything I didn't complete in class.

I would always reply with a simple answer of, "I don't know either. It's just how I am."

That was the only answer I gave since I don't ever like to lie about anything. On the topic of lying, my last area to point out for the preface is this: I want you to know that I am not sugarcoating, exaggerating, or lying about any of this personal experience! I am definitely not one of those "contestants" on "real" television shows!

Now that I know you know I am an honest girl with a wandering mind, you can finally just proceed in reading this first-hand account of events that were literally out of this world!

~

My interesting account begins just after curfew started for the night. I was in my bunker as I prepared to sneak out to a bathroom a few hallways from my location. Yes, I know how bathrooms are such an amazing spot that is filled with interesting magic like when Hermione Granger encountered a troll in the Harry Potter franchise! I know bathrooms are a mainstream spot for action in fantasy books, but keep in mind that I am telling a true story!

I would sneak around this time every night and just before curfew ended at sunrise. My contact lenses were getting to be a pain like always. I made sure my roommate, a pilot named Madelyn Whiting, was asleep, and after that, I quietly slipped out the doors to my barrack and headed to the washroom.

~

Nobody knew I wore contacts, and if someone found out, I would have been forced to give up my chance of going to space to someone with better vision! That would never happen because I was very determined.

I had perfect vision when I first became a student, but over the years, I became fully dependent on my contacts.

Even though Commander Iverson favored me because of my intelligence and my ability to quickly identify errors, it was a Garrison code for students that fit better to replace less favorable people in the classes in order to be fair and have fewer issues with unsuccessful mission attempts. Also, I never did have the chance to fix my vision like Matthew Holt did. The vision-fixing surgery started failing more than working. The Galaxy Garrison stopped offering it before I came.

Matthew Holt had a nice team. Takashi Shirogane, Matthew, and Samuel Holt (Matthew's dad) took off into space to find ice on Kerberos. That's how their mission name simply was the Kerberos Mission. Most think their disappearance was a complete accident, but my friend Pidge and I think otherwise.

In fact, every night for about a year, Pidge and I would monitor conversations from aliens using a computer set we built together. We believed that the three space explorers were still alive when nobody else did. That was one reason why I sneak out every night. The other is because I can't put contacts in during the day with the increased and high risk of someone seeing me.

~

I had to hurry because I was already out of my barrack during curfew. I may be an officer-in-training, but there are only two real differences I have from an average cadet. I take training classes along with advanced engineering, technician, and pilot classes, and I wear a different uniform from the cadets. Curfew is something I had to follow, but I had less than a semester to go before I would have been a true officer. I still have no idea what an officer does.

As I turned down a corridor on my way to the washroom, I see two guys quietly walking down another hall close to the intersection. It was hard to see what they looked like, but I assumed that they were cadets since they had on regular clothes.

They were doing a poor job of being quiet. Their "whispers" were loud enough for me to hear clearly from another hallway.

As they turned near a light source, I recognized the two men as Hunk Garret and Lance McClain. Hunk was a fellow student in my engineering class. I could tell that he wanted to do well, but he had a hard time resisting peer pressure from Lance.

Ally, one of my past roommates and the exact definition of a spoiled rotten teenage girl, dated Lance for a bit. Ally and Lance would team up and prank people. Ally was expelled, so the power couple shut down.

~

Anyway, It seems sad that every classmate of mine despised me. I don't know what I did, but they ignored me when I tried to be friendly...

Madelyn, my extremely unfriendly current bunkmate, would go to bed early so that she could be left alone, so I timed my trips well. I would never get caught by her.

~

Just as I made it to the mirrors in the washroom, an alert came on the announcement speakers. I didn't pay attention. They would make announcements so much for every little thing! That time, I should have listened a bit better.

"Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice."

At first, I was slightly confused. We had a lockdown drill literally last week! I remember it being on a Monday because I had a simulation test! Then, I heard the part about it not being a practice. The problem is that I wouldn't have been able to see, and if I did apply dirty contacts, the downside is way worse. I didn't know what, but I didn't want to know either! I still don't know!

Just as I put the last lens in, there was a ground-shaking thud. It almost made me miss my eye! I grabbed my startled heart, which was beating fast and hard. I was completely confident that Commander Iverson would convince us all that there was an earthquake, but I knew for a fact that something from outer space landed very close to the compound. Earthquakes are multiple miniature spasms the ground has. Also, earthquakes don't make sounds like a fighter jet speeding across the sky!

My contacts were in, so I dashed as fast as I could to my barrack pod. Occasional breath breaks were made since I never got athletic training. The need for it was not very high, but there were gyms if anyone wanted to work out during break time. I never exercised, and I began to think less about my size. Being a little bit chubby never was a huge issue. I did not think I would need to be fit until that moment.

I reached the doors to my shared barrack. I was genuinely in shock when I pushed the entrance button and noticed that it did not work. I knew there was only one valid reason for why I was unable to enter. Madelyn already secured the room to where the doors were already closed and locked.

I expected Madelyn to have slept through the alarms. She definitely is not the type of person that can easily be woken up. She always sleeps through my alarm clock, my nudges, my shoves, and everything else! One time, I used an extremely soft feather (I am unable to hold it anywhere but the base because it tickles me so much) and brushed the down part of her nose. The only reaction I got was a sneeze, and the sneeze didn't even wake her up!

~

What shocked me is that she is asleep when I leave the dorm for the day, but after my thirty-five minutes of hanging with Pidge and ten minutes of getting to class goes by, Madelyn always makes it in the room with her full uniform on and got deeply focused on some art or a book before me. I did not understand how she can get completely ready, get to class, and be there long enough to drown out every surrounding activity by focussing on perfecting a drawing before I even make it in the room.

~

Right at that point, I somehow forgot how to use my ability to think rationally for a while. I repeatedly pounded my hands on the bulletproof entrance yelling,

"Madelyn! It's me, Mika! Let me in! I'm locked out! Help me! Open the doors!"

I did not get a reply. I thought Madelyn would at least stop ignoring the fact that I exist long enough to walk up to the closed thick, bulletproof, metallic material that makes up our door, look just to the right of the door's threshold, notice a square that is glowing red, push the red, luminous square knowing that it is a button labeled "unlock", and going back to pretending I do not exist. I thought she would have enough of a working heart to make sure a peer she deals with every day (even if she doesn't enjoy it) is safe.

I forgot that there were a couple of rules regarding lockdown safety that most people learned when they were very young. Those simple safety rules are:

1.) Never unlock and open the door for anyone during a lockdown.

2.) If one is locked out of their designated spot and in an unsafe spot, they have to find another place to hide. Look for other groups, or hide in closed bathroom stalls or locked closets.

As soon as I remembered these "extremely useful and important" words that everyone brushed off in elementary school, I sprinted down the halls for any open entries. A few minutes of running through corridors and corridors filled with locked safe spots later, I gave up on finding a barrack group that would be able to let me in. I looked around for another washroom or some storage closet, but I soon realized that I was in a whole new section of the Galaxy Garrison.

Anyone can tell you that because I am totally NOT someone who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and will get so distracted that I forget my main goal, I started to walk the reverse path of my trail that I took to get where I ended up being, but then, I did something because I actually am totally someone who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, also known as ADHD in case you forgot already, and will get so distracted that I forget my main goal. I all of a sudden started thinking about what the crash was, where it came from, and where it ended up. I figured that nobody would suspect that I would be missing since nobody pays attention to me. Also, nobody is able to leave their dorms, so nobody would notice if I come back at the right time. The strangest reason I had was that I felt like a voice or being inside my mind or soul was pushing and pushing a ton of desire and wanting while telling me that I will get a better, happier life with no lies and genuine friendship and love from everyone.

I suddenly found myself starting to walk down corridors and corridors, passing the simulators, passing the classrooms, passing Madelyn and my bunker, and ending up standing in front of the doors that, when opened, led outside in the arid, sandy desert that ends where a cliff edge sits.

I walked outside to a starry night. A full moon was high in the sky as it seemed to have just started its climb back down from the top of the sky. I guess time really does go by quicker when you are not paying attention to it! The voice in my head was getting stronger and stronger. _Patience yields focus. Remember that. Patience yields focus._

I promised myself to actually go back to my bunker if anything like this ever happened to me in the future. The lack of sleep has side effects that are actually real and definitely exist, and they really were not fun.

I was outside walking around for quite a while. I roamed out so much I started to not even pay attention to how much time was going by. I would occasionally look up to the moon to navigate my path in the arid, dry, sandy desert, but even all of the walking did not help me feel more awake. As I continue to look back and remember these moments, I am still starting to realize that there were some events that I did not really think about at the time of this part of life. One important, notable example is that I am just now learning was that the voice in my head repeating commands for me to find the mystery object never made another sign of it existing ever again.

I did not ever find the object that entered our atmosphere, and once the sun's rays started to peak out from the horizon, I hesitated but eventually decided that I was extremely tired to the point where imaginary voices were telling me to break a law in the Galaxy Garrison Code for a "better life". I remembered and believed that my past actions would make me never have true friends after what happened in my childhood years.

I started walking to the hill where the building sits on, and I used my weak legs to climb the hill with the last of my energy. As I sluggishly stepped foot on the concrete patio, I tripped and fell forward on some scattered objects. I did not see them before since I was literally walking with my eyes almost shut. My vision fell down with my head until my eyes spotted some old, hand-built, pieces of technology. They appeared to have significant signs of damage, and the cause to me seemed to be that they were dropped from a place of high elevation.

Then, I noticed some very familiar parts of the broken mess. I had flashbacks that made me remember my one true friend, Pidge Gunderson, first arriving when he was fourteen. I was seventeen at that point, and I already had built a very good reputation with Commander Iverson.

I looked around for the rest of the parts, and I noticed that there was a notepad with a bunch of writing and sketched data scattered over some pages. I decided to scan the words and images, and one unknown word stuck out more than the rest. This single word, _Voltron,_ was accompanied by a sketch of some robot with green and red arms, blue and yellow legs, and a black everything else. I thought that it needed a hint of silver. To me, silver actually is a very nice color.

Pidge never told me that he found a possible answer to the Kerberos mission mystery. I wonder why he kept it a secret.

The sketch was about as nice as how Madelyn draws. Madelyn was an amazing artist. I sometimes got a little bit jealous looking at her art. Being a nerd and not having a creative talent can be hard because I always have the urge to correct people when they express some incorrect thing. It makes the other people think I am rude. Never the less, I wished I was more artistic than autistic.

By the way, I was not trying to use the term of Autism to ridicule people with it. It may have seemed to be that way, but I am going to take a couple of minutes to explain what I mean. In order for me to make this sound as clear as I can get, I do have to reveal my first hidden confession of this memoir. I guess now is the time to reveal that I am not just a person with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I also have a mental disability called Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autism, or ASD. Autism is basically a term used to give a common name to people with different smaller syndromes that are similar to each other in some ways. The individual conditions are centered around having flaws in a person's way of interacting with society. I will take more time to explain in a future chapter. I have tried to keep the number of people knowing that I was also autistic because when I was younger, I would tell everyone who walked up to me. Tension grew, awkwardness rose, and my good reputation crashed. I learned to only tell people I trust enough, so that is why I am telling you right now. After all, I did promise you to reveal important secrets as the story goes on.

~

I looked around for the other missing parts. If someone else took them, both Pidge and I would be in a great amount of trouble. As I thought about where the radio wave detector would be, I started thinking about where Pidge was. My one true best friend would never have abandoned his supplies willingly. Something was not right. I tried not to think about Pidge being dead. Even though he was probably on the roof when that still unknown object soared over the roof of the Garrison and crashed somewhere nearby, he just could not be dead to me. Even if all of the reality said otherwise.

~

I picked up the broken pieces and the notepad, and I started to walk down the concrete patio to the double doors that would lead me back inside. I expected the lockdown to be over and that I would be able to go inside since the doors are unlocked when not in lockdown. I pulled on the handle, and I did not get the door to open. I pushed the handle, just in case I was being idiotic for the first time in a long while, but even pushing did not work. I could not believe that the Garrison was still locked in. At that point, I still was confused on what caused the lockdown to be that long.

After a couple of minutes trying to open the door, I gave in to the fact that I would not be able to get into the Garrison. I walked back out to the edge where old but barely used concrete met rocky, earthy, red, clay, desert sand.

I started to pace back and forth on the concrete walkway and trying to think about anything but Pidge's safety.

The really odd thing about thoughts is that when someone tells you,"don't think about cookies," you end up thinking about cookies and then types of cookies, and then before you know it, your stomach is growling with a craving for cookies!

That was how my mind was with Pidge.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Just like with the object's crash yesterday evening, this was not an earthquake either. Earthquakes start shaking just a little bit and grow in intensity. This shaking was so heavy that I had a hard time keeping my balance as soon as it started!

A couple of seconds later, something made of blue metal burst out of a mountain's top. A huge, strong, intense, round ring-shaped wave of windy force shot out from where the metal shape with blue fire powering it came out. The immense, windy force was traveling so fast, I had no time to think of how to not get hit with it. When it made contact with me, I fell back on my back like a bowling pin. My head hit the concrete so hard, I immediately got knocked out as dusty smog came over my head like a blanket. I guess that was nature's way of telling me, "good night! See you tomorrow!"

~

_**FOUR MONTHS LATER** _

~

I woke up laying on my back looking at a cream-white colored ceiling with a design of small, dark red flowers painted on the ceiling above me. Other than that, this was exactly like a typical room design in a hospital. The only difference was that all lights were off.

I felt a needle stuck in and taped down on my inner elbow, and I had some tubes in my nostrils that were connected to a tube going across my face. I was alive! Someone from the Galaxy Garrison found me and saved me!

I could not move much since I was connected to a lot of machines with tubes that really should be made in longer lengths.

There was something that just did not seem right. Normally, doctors are everywhere. I remember breaking my wrist on my left hand, and I could see doctors and nurses filling the hall! The hospital rooms have windows, by the way. Now, I heard only two doctors outside talking to each other. I could only hear muffled words since they were not in my room.

I had a very hard time seeing. I assumed that they found my contacts and took them out. I hoped that they have not told anyone.

I held still so that I could listen to the conversation. I knew it would not be helpful since it sounded like they were talking into a kazoo that did not alter their voices. I did hear that the female seemed to be calm while the male was slightly worried. I heard some words in their dialogue that sounded somewhat like,

"We should tell her. It is our job as doctors to tell every person the truth."

"Nadia, she is one of them!"

"I know, but she is still half a human. Ty, I am the doctor. You are the nurse."

"I do not want to die! I have to make our dreams actually become a reality!"

"Ty, it is our job to put the lives of patients before us. The God you talk about has a plan for all, even for people who do not believe in the message."

"I guess we should tell her since, now, nobody else can."

"Maybe the half of her that she was taught only exists in fairy tales can save herself, us, Earth, Arus, and any other place taken over by Zarkon."

"Fine. Maybe she will be the girl that you felt will bond with the lion and save your uncle, his people, humans and me, and everyone else who is against her emperor."

I began to sit up and caused some noise. My mind began to process what I heard.

I thought about what I heard. What I thought they were saying actually fit each other's conversation, but to me, being only half a human could not possibly be true.

I am not some overdone, overrated, cringy werewolf or vampire character in sappy romance books. I'm not some mermaid that can kill you when I sing. Besides, you'll want to close your ears cause I sound terrible instead of wanting to hear more. I can also verify to you that I do not have legs or a rump like a deer or horse, but neither of those were close to what they meant.

I heard the sounds of opening the door to the room and walking in. The female voice started her introduction first.

"Hello, Mika. My name is Doctor Nadia Azzam. I have been keeping you alive for the last four months."

The male speaks up next.

"My name is Ty Freeman. I am a nurse, and I have been working with Doctor Nadia to help you stay alive."

Ty started to take off all the things that were on my body as Nadia told me what happened.

"A few minutes after the wave passed the Garrison, everyone crowded to the windows to see what was left of the mountain. Someone by the name of Madelyn Whiting noticed you lying unconscious and carried you here. We fixed a couple of damaged spots on your spine, and since then, we have waited for you to wake up. Is there anything you feel is not right?"

Since I could not give any hints of being almost blind, I tried to pretend that I was perfectly healed despite having an extremely hard time seeing.

Ty paused what he was doing and picked up something from a nearby desk. He walked back over and put the object on the hospital bed's right armrest.

"Try these on. They will help you out."

"Thank you."

I moved my hand around the armrest until I touched the object. At that point, I felt enough to know that these were brand new glasses. I pulled out the temples and bought the lenses to my face. I positioned the temples behind my ears, and I put my hands back down. Everything was still blurry, but I did not want to complain about them getting me near-sighted glasses when I am actually far-sighted.

Doctor Nadia held up a mirror and asked, "do you like them?"

I lied for the first time in a while by saying, "I do!"

Doctor Nadia told me, "we made these to be custom fitted so that they would not be an issue if you ever do go to outer space!"

Ty quietly whispered to himself, "if she even lives."

Doctor Nadia did something very shocking to me. She simply pretended that Ty never did say what he said. That made me remember what she and Ty were talking about outside.

I asked both of them in a kind of demanding tone, "what did you mean when you were talking about me being only half human?"

Ty and Doctor Nadia both started to show signs that they were struggling to make an excuse.

Doctor Nadia laughed nervously and said, "doctors always say the opposite of what is real so that nobody overhears private information!"

I laughed and said, "so you guys are going to die only if I am a full human, and the doctors must live instead of their patients? That makes absolutely no sense!"

Ty and Doctor Nadia give each other a look and a quick, subtle nod.

Ty calmly says, "Mika, one of your parents is from another planet. The people on that planet are trying to find you because you saw a ship of their enemy's planet."

"I guess today is April First!"


	2. Chapter 2

Doctor Nadia sighed with a hint of aggravation dispersed throughout the sound.

"Those words were actually serious and real. It may not seem like it, but if you look around enough, you should notice how there is nobody else walking the halls. Everyone but us three have been killed by purple-skinned aliens with extremely futuristic weapons. Not even our bulletproof doors are able to stop the projectiles that come out of their guns."

Doctor Nadia did have a point. Even though my sight was still flawed, I still believed her with that.

Ty added on with, "that blue thing that came out of the mountain was a spaceship shaped like a robotic lion. Do you remember reading about it anywhere in your friend's data?"

I suddenly remembered Pidge was missing.

"I think so! Where is he? Was Pidge found? Did anyone at least report if someone by the name of Pidge Gunderson was seen?"

Ty shook his head.

"Nobody reported the name. We would not know anyway. He is probably gone just like everyone else."

I was ready to cry when I heard that. In fact, I did shed a few tears right there.

"He will never know how much I cared about him. I told him just one lie. I actually had feelings for him, but to make him not know, I sugarcoated a secret of mine. I would catch feelings for guys and girls, making me identify as a bisexual, so I told him, 'I like girls.' This made him think I am actually a homosexual, and he never suspected that I had feelings for him. Now, I will never be able to tell the truth to him."

Doctor Nadia handed me a tissue. "There is a chance he is still out there. We all can escape out of this hiding spot with some hidden powers you have."

I suddenly got over the feeling of sadness, but then, I was feeling determined to do this for them and for me.

"Tell me everything! What are the powers? How do I activate them? How would it help us out? Does it have a time limit? What are the downsides? Do I already have a power? Was I born with any of them? Are they something that has to do with the necklace I always have worn?"

The necklace I have is a circular pendant of a crescent moon with luminous-looking blood dripping down the bottom dip. I have always had it. I was pretty sure it was from Mom. Now, I know it is.

~

Doctor Nadia let out a light chuckle.

"Neither of us can answer any of those at the moment."

Ty added, "the necklace is mighty pretty, though. Whoever gave it to you has extremely good fashion taste."

Doctor Nadia jokingly said, "it would be a nice gift for our wedding."

I let out a small squeel and shouted with joy, "OH MY GOD YOU GUYS ARE ENGAGED! I TOTALLY THINK YOU GUYS WOULD BE THE BEST COUPLE KNOWN TO MAN!"

They shushed me and snapped, "nobody knows we are here! If someone hears us, we will be found and killed!"

I whispered, "congratulations! I am super excited for you guys!"

Ty said with a kind, warm voice, "thank you. We are planning on getting married at the edge of the cliff as soon as we get to see the sunlight again."

I had a sudden urge to tell them, "I will help you guys. I do not know how, but I will find a way. I will even sacrifice myself to guarantee you guys will have the chance to live, marry, and share this story with your future kids."

I could see the blurry colored circles that made up their faces show their pearly white teeth by beaming.

Ty made a suggestion that we work together and come up with a plan. Doctor Nadia suggested that I go out and escape, find some weapons stored in the closets.

I added, "I have always been good at escaping and hiding!"

Ty shook his head. "Mika, you could be out of practice. You could be found, killed, and then we would have the same fate!"

I huffed. He will never understand how much I snuck out of places. I do not think I could ever become out of practice with escaping! It was so common for me that I had a hard time not sneaking out of a place at least once a day.

Doctor Nadia made another suggestion: her and Ty run out as I distract the enemys' attention off of them. Then, I would escape.

Ty groaned. "That is just too risky. I do not know who would be more distracted by the distraction: Mika or the enemies. No offense to you, Mika."

I smirked. "I think we should use Ty to distract the bad guys with a whole bunch of whining and complaining. Nadia gets led out and taken to safety, and I go back in to find and lead Ty to Nadia. The rest of the plan involves me crying at the wedding."

Ty sarcastically says, "ha ha. Good idea. Just like the thought of saving your life being helpful."

Doctor Nadia giggles. "You guys seem more like a married couple than we would. Now, we should actually make a plan. One that both of us can agree at least a little bit on."

This part is probably going to be really confusing, but honestly, I would say all of this could make anyone here's brain start to turn into a strawberry or cherry gelatin dish. After some time, you may want to stick your head in a freezer (be sure to take a picture and upload it with the tag 241543903 because we all know that this meme is truly amazing but about as dead as pretty much all people in the Galaxy Garrison when I woke up from the coma-thing) since your internal body temperature will cause your Jello-brain to melt, and then, you will have even less of a brain!

~

The three of us started to think about ideas that at least one other person would agree on. I suggested that I should try to figure out what the special ability I have was and how to use it while the others try to form an escape plan.

Doctor Nadia thought that the idea I had was good, so they left the room so that I could meditate in a quiet environment. Honestly, meditating is a waste of time for someone who struggles with relaxation.

Five minutes passed. I already got extremely bored even before then. Doctor Nadia walked back in and asked if I made any progress. I shook my head. To my surprise, I did not lose any faith yet. That moment came later on in this chapter.

Doctor Nadia told me to keep making effort even if I did not feel any progress being made. Then, she left the room and slowly, gently, quietly closed the door.

About ten more minutes passed by, and the only new feeling I had was guilt for wasting fifteen precious minutes that could have been used by me sneaking around and grabbing weapons. I wished Ty actually believed in me.

Doctor Nadia walked back in and asked if any new progress was made. I sighed out of aggravation and hopelessness.

Doctor Nadia pushed a rolling chair close to the hospital bed and sat down. I could tell that I was about to get a lecture, so I braced myself for that.

"Mika Stella Porter, first of all, you had enough desire to run away from an asylum that you were put in for the wrong reasons. Do not worry. Nobody else that was here knew of that."

Yes, I was sent to a mental hospital because police officers did not believe me when I told them that my "father" at the time was abusive towards me. I will explain more on that in the near future chapters. I just want you to know that I am NOT crazy to a dangerous level!

"How did you know that?"

"When we tested your blood, the computer system told us your identity, conditions, information from past tests, and the location of where all of the submitted information came from."

I was actually not as shocked as someone with no knowledge of technology would be. Biology has always been my favorite science class, and science is my second favorite class. Math is the best in my opinion.

~

I pointed my head down. They did not understand why I really wanted to work for the Galaxy Garrison. "Just because I escaped a psycho place to find happiness does not mean I achieved my goal. I still ended up with no friends that I could see each and every day."

"You felt like you were committed enough to tell Ty and me that you would do anything to allow us to continue on with our life journey."

I suddenly started feeling like I told the worst lie ever. "I was not thinking before I said that. I just did not want you guys to feel hopeless. Sometimes, my urges to tell someone something take over my rational side. You do realize I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD, and Aspergers Syndrome, a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, or Autism."

Doctor Nadia did not reply. I thought I won the debate. Then, Doctor Nadia spoke up.

"When I was young, my father would always tell me, 'the moment you stop trying is the moment your goal is set to never be achieved.' I would loose faith in being a doctor because I am a female, but Allah, or to you " _God_ ", made each of us how He wanted us to be. Do you know Muslims like me have to pray five times a day? Well, the highlight of my prayers have been for you to be the one that will rid the Galaxy Garrison from the enemy aliens who have wrongly taken over our home. In recent days, I think that Allah has told me that you can do it. I know you have different beliefs about religion, but in the end, the God I believe in and the God you believe in is the same. It is your role to liberate the Galaxy Garrison."

I was wowed by what all Doctor Nadia told me. It almost seemed like she spend some time to make this up and sound believable.

"Do you promise me that every word that came out of your mouth is the complete truth?"

"Doctors are never allowed to tell anything other than the truth in the first place. You can count on me. Now, try and get some predictions on what we should do."

I had one more question for her.

"Can you tell me what kind of alien I am? That may be something that could help me out with learning this secret power."

Doctor Nadia paused. The suspense started to make me catching feelings of impatience and a growing need for an answer.

"Are you not saying anything so that you will not be saying a lie. If that is the case, you can at least tell me that. I will not ask again."

Doctor Nadia let out a soft chuckle. "Actually, I am trying to be quiet because I do not want to make the wrong guess. That would make you think I told you a lie, and then, you would not trust me. The best choice for me to make would be to not share any possible answers."

I noticed that I had gained enough energy to sit up. "Do you know at all what I could be?"

"I am sorry. I do not have enough evidence to make an accurate enough conclusion.

I heard sounds of Doctor Nadia rising from sitting in her chair and exiting the room. I put a lot of effort into trying to get the voice in my head that was talking to me before to talk again. I closed my eyes and layed back down on the hospital bed. I knew that meditation should always be done in a comfortable position so that the one meditating will not have to resituate at all. After a couple of minutes, I almost gave up again. Just before I opened my eyes, I started to see something interesting. I focussed my mind on the picture I was seeing. It was almost like I was looking outside to space through the window of a rocket ship.

~

I would know since the "windows" on the rocket simulation machines display 360 degree pictures taken by satellites in space. Basically, the way the simulation ships give a very accurate visual effect really is not _rocket_ science! It is more technical.

~

I have always had a liking of all types of puns. That pun above is one of my favorites to use! I always had to be serious and not joke around when I was learning new things at the Garrison, so almost every opportunity I would have to say a pun was taken. One of my Garrison Goals was to find a friend that would never get tired of making and hearing puns. I forgot about my Garrison Goals since I never did make any friends I would see every day.

~

Suddenly, the sight I was seeing in my head became very clear. There was a rocky mess in the space-filled sky with pieces of a couple of ships scattered and floating about. I still remember the image now about as crystal clear as I was seeing it there on the hospital bed cot thing. As I focused more on the sight, I started hearing a male voice that seemed to be about my age (in case I have not told you, I am eighteen) repeating the words, " _I am alive. I made it._ "

After hearing, " _I am alive. I made it_ ," being repeated over and over several times, that phrase ceased from saying that again. All of a sudden, there was silence almost like the voice noticed me. Then, I heard the last thing before opening my eyes.

" _It wasn't me. It was Lotor._ _"_

I was confused on what a Lotor was at the time. Once I opened my eyes, the image and voice stopped completely. I softly called out, "I saw and heard something!"

I did not hear any movement. I called out that same sentence again but with a slightly higher amount of volume. I still got no reply.

"Doctor Nadia? Ty? Can you guys hear me?"

I still heard nothing. I started to get worried about if they were in danger, and soon enough, I heard a scream. It came from what I thought was a female, probably about twenty-five years of age, has a middle eastern ethnicity, and sounded a lot like Doctor Nadia. My rational self started to work, and I realized that the scream came from Doctor Nadia herself.

I started to think about if I should stay in the room and hide somewhere, run out of the Garrison and break the promise that I would be sure Ty and Dr Nadia would make it out alive before myself, or run in the direction of the scream to help them out and keep my promise of their lives mattering more than mine. I could still barely see, but when I heard something that sounded similar but not exactly the same as a gunshot, I immediately put my feet on the ground, stood on my feet, got my balance right, and ran out the doors.

I turned right and sprinted into every room to locate Doctor Nadia and Ty. Every single room was as empty as an abandoned ghost town forgotten ages ago. When I reached the dead end of the hall, I realized that I turned the wrong way from the doors.

I started to run, but then, I got a huge cramp. Like I told you before, I am not athletic at all! I started to walk down the hall while clutching the side of my body where my cramp was, but eventually, the pain was gone enough to where I could walk normally.

I peeked through each window until I saw neon purple lights shining out from some sort of metal armor. I ducked down so that I was not visible from the view of the window, but the uniform I was wearing made a small sound as I ducked down. I thought to myself, "nobody heard that. Do not move a muscle."

Apparently, I lied to myself without even knowing it. I heard heavy footsteps start making their way towards the door. I still remained motionless. I thought I was going to die, so I decided escaping would be a waste of my time.

The footsteps stopped in front of me. I slowly pulled my head up to meet the gaze of a purple-skinned, dog-eared, yellow-eyed monster with armor that looked so heavy but was nothing to him. Two others stood behind me as the first one pulled out a very nice looking gun and pointed it at my forehead.

His devilish fanged grin started to tell me in a deep, evil voice, "you have been charged with aiding an enemy force. The punishment for this is a death sentence. Unless you confess what Voltron's plans are, you will be executed where you are."

"I am sorry, sir. I have been unconscious for four months! I do not know who Voltron is! That is the truth!"

The creature pulled the trigger right as Doctor Nadia jumped on him and tackled him to the floor. The bullet went through both of the other aliens' heads. I heard another shot being fired, and when I turned around, Doctor Nadia had a crimson stain on her clothes where her heart was. I ran inside the room she came out of to see a dead Ty right by the cot.

From that day forward, I have trouble going to sleep knowing they died.

~

As I turned around to run as fast I could, a mighty huge hand grabbed me by my right shoulder and yanked me down to the ground. I started to kick out and move my arms as the purple creature tied me up. My self defense skills were not great at the time.

I was lifted and carried over the monster's shoulder to a room where a few other creatures that looked like him were standing. Their menacing yellow eyes locked their gaze on me as their mouths changed into dangerous fanged grins.

"Get the gas ready. Emperor Zarkon made it completely clear that this earthling girl needs to suffer brutally before her death."

The other furry demon people put their right fists up to where I think their hearts are and said, "vrepit sa!"

I made a stupid decision and yelled out to them, "if you kill me, you know nobody will be able to tell you anything about the Voltron thing you guys are looking for!"

I was thrown on the cot in the room. I started trying to untie the ropes, and by the time someone noticed me, I already was completely free. Then, the extra troops all pushed my arms down as the main guy put a breathing mask over my head.

"We will give you one more chance to confess. Where is Voltron?"

"I told you before. I do not know!"

The main man-thing connected the tube to a metal can.

"In less than thirty ticks of inhaling this gas we are immune to, you will be dead. Good night!"

Then, the soldier guy flipped a switch on the top of the can, and a magenta colored fog crept it's way up the tube and to my nose.

The fog smelled like nice, rich, homemade grape jelly. I developed a strong enough love for the smell that I forgot it was supposed to poison me. I started to feel tired very quickly. The poison was working, but at that point, I could not do anything to stop it!

I eventually could not stay awake any longer. I slowly closed my eyes and started to dream. The dream was very interesting to me at the time. I was falling into an atmosphere of a planet with ores and jewels everywhere, and all of a sudden, a metallic silver lion ship thing catches me as I fell. It swooped down to the ground and the mouth opened up for me to walk into. When I did, it led me into a control room. Then, a male that looked a lot like me appeared on the screen. "Mika, you may be new to this system and to us, but you just have to trust yourself and the lion. After all, it found and chose YOU for a reason."

Then, the ship blasted off into outer space. It blasted projectiles from its mouth at some nifty looking black and purple ships. I liked those rockets a whole lot more.

~

After some time, I started to feel like maybe I was not actually dead. I started to feel like I was waking up from a nice, deep sleep. Soon enough, I opened my eyes to find myself in the hospital room from before. It was abandoned, and somehow, I felt like those purple freaks left the Garrison for good. I did not know how to explain how I knew at the time. Then, I remembered something the alien monster briefly mentioned.

People of his kind are immune to the poison gas. If I was somewhat immune to the fumes, I guessed that I was half a human and half whatever they are. I now know that the assumption was correct.

I sat up on the cot. The strange, new vibes I felt ever since the object crashed have already disappeared by this point. I still was absolutely positive that I had no idea what to do with my life from that point, and I also was still debating on whether or not I actually wanted to gain control over the powers I activated somehow. I knew that there was more to come, and at that point in time, I was scared to touch anything or move much. I was extremely nervous that I would accidentally kill someone innocent or anyone at all if there even was any person still alive.

I already was dealing with enough amounts of trauma from seeing the deaths of my most recent genuine, real friends. Their names would not stop haunting me in my head. Doctor Nadia Azzam and Ty Freeman were dead and deeply missed. I believed that if there was an afterlife, they would probably look at me with disgust. I broke a very important promise, keeping them alive even if I die instead, that I made to them. At that moment, I felt a ton of guilt and about as much trauma.

I started to feel confident enough to stand up on the floors and walk around. When I saw that I was not going to destroy everything I touch, I decided to make my way down the wide, carpeted hallway to where Doctor Nadia saved me and now is dead with Ty close to the threshold of the door that Doctor Nadia jumped out of.

I wanted to do something with the lifeless bodies (I bet you would feel like something unusual was going on if there were two dead people right in the hall and just inside a room in your house, too!), but I was not very strong. I could not and did not want to touch the dead bodies. That would be very strange if you liked to do that, and really, it would be even weirder if you were around dead bodies often. I would never be able to lift that much weight anyway. Instead, I grabbed a couple batches of wilted, untended hospital flowers in the nearby rooms and walked back to them. I divided the bunch into two bouquets that were roughly accurate to have a 3 to 1 ratio. I put the bigger bundle next to Doctor Nadia since she is a female, and I scattered the rest over around Ty. I know it was kind of extra and unnecessary, but at the time, they deserved to have a little bit of kindness done for them in my opinion.

I was even more over the top when I remembered how to pray from one of my home experiences. I felt like even if a prayer was really useless, I should at least take some time in case it did lead to some powerful being. I sat on my knees, and I thought the words,

"Dear God or whatever another name you prefer to be called, I wish that the plans you had for these friends of mine did not have to end with them dying before me, but you can show me what my fate is whenever you are ready. I just hope my heroic friends did not have to die for no reason. Basically, I am ready to know my path that I hope will provide meaning for my fallen hero peers. Please make sure they will have a purpose for the future I have planned. Amen."

~

I never really have been a real religious person, but there was a time when I would have to go to church with my family at that time. I was about ten or so years old at that point. The people there were actually really nice, but it all was an illusion. I accidentally said something that was perceived the wrong way, and nobody would hear me out enough to know it was a slip-up of meaning. I told one "friend" about the time when I had suffered from mild depression and my journey with finally ridding those feelings for good. She started to tell everyone that I needed help and that I was extremely unstable to the point where I would have ended it all right then. The pastor of the church heard, and he scheduled meetings against my will to "help allow God to enter my soul and help become more with Him". It was a waste of my time, and I was embarrassed to be labeled as the girl with issues. When the pastor felt like I was "healed", he sent a letter to my guardians at the time. They felt like nothing was improving, and they set up even more mandatory meetings with the pastor. Of course, the pastor gladly agreed since he was a pastor! I could get out of the meetings when my guardians said so.

My entire life story has been very complicated, but I began to feel like the peak of it all was only getting started right then.


	3. Chapter 3

As I got up to make my way out to main levels of the Garrison, I felt my feet barely step on something small and I thought was fragile. I still was unable to see that well, so I had a hard time with being able to know what was right in front of me. I bent down and brushed my hands scattered around the hard floors, and as I leaned in more and more, my new glasses fell off of my face. I guess they were made to stay put on my face if I was shaking rapidly like how rocket start-offs are. They are extremely bumpy even in the simulations!

I felt the object just to the left of my right boot, and I picked it up. I could feel two temples and on each, a slight curve that would wrap around ears of an average female. I then felt two very thick, wide, oval-shaped frames and their connecting point in the middle of the ovals. I knew from that moment that these were the glasses worn by Doctor Nadia.

I opened the temples out and tried the nifty, stylish, cute glasses on. For the first time in a while, I could see with one hundred percent clarity.

I turned one hundred eighty degrees, and my heart suddenly made bigger, bolder beats as I saw my reflection through a window. The glasses looked just like the typical hipster shape, but there was a sparkling silver rhinestone in the top outer corner of the dark Grey frames. It was a nice accented addition to bring out my messy black hair with a line of growing bangs covering most of my forehead, and the silver gem on the corners made the blue and slightly purple color in my somewhat small, long and slanted eyes shine bright like a diamond.

I suddenly felt like I had the most beautiful look of all time despite having a face that was just bawling out so many tears. Beauty hurts in a couple of different ways, I guess.

I decided that I was never going to forget what Doctor Nadia and Ty have done for me as I turned to get the last look (yes, I know that is weird, but I was always a person who could make anyone cringes by doing anything normal to me). I noticed something new that my weak eyes would have never noticed before. On the bones that were just above her cheeks, there were two, shiny hot pink marking shaped like the cells of a person with sickle cell anemia disease. Also, her extremely dark grey hijab was moved enough to reveal big, pointy, elf-like ears that were tucked away quite well before.

I would have never guessed that an ordinary common doctor was an alien. To be honest, I would not have been able to guess that I was not a human either. If it was not for Doctor Nadia and Ty, I would have died without ever knowing my true self. My next goal was to know what these aliens are called. What species was half of my bloodline? What was the name of Doctor Nadia and the other aliens like her?

I looked over and inside the room to see nothing new about Ty. I guess he was not an outcast of the human race like the rest of our trio. I wonder if Ty knew of Doctor Nadia's place of origin.

I decided that I was going to go back up to the main levels of the Garrison so that I could pack my belongings and see if there is another nearby place that could let me stay in for a while. The Garrison was unsafe for all people, especially me, since the aliens could attack again at any point.

I walked up the few flights of stairs after navigating my way through the halls. The medical wing was located on the very bottom levels of the Garrison. This area was part of the underground levels that are for things other than classes. The floor that is on sea level is Floor thirty. General classes we all take are from floor thirty one up to floor fourty, the P-Wing (the area just for pilots) was located from Floor fourty one to the roof (level sixty), the T-Wing (the area just for technicians) was located on floor fifty nine to floor fifty, and the E-Wing (the area just for engineers) is located on floors fourty nine through fourty one. The levels in between the medical clinic (the first five floors) and the cafeteria and atrium (floor thirty) were where the barracks were.

Men and women were separated, but almost all bunkers have two people in a different program. None of us knew why that was the case. None of us ever wanted to complain either. There really was no need.

I made it to my home, barrack two on floor ten, hall G. The location was called 10-G2. That was pretty obvious, but I still felt like telling you. You may want to use the reference for some odd reason. Honestly, I do not understand you people in those things called "fandoms".

Barrack 10-G2 was my one safe place that I would consider my only true home for a while. I opened the door and got overwhelming feelings of sorrow as I remembered Madelyn was not alive. For once, I actually miss hearing those loud snores coming from her sleeping self as I would try to do homework and get aggravated at how disrupting it was and eventually go up to the study rooms in the library located on Floor Fifteen.

I packed my silver drawstring bag with some extra clothes, deodorant, and some other basic needs. The last thing I grabbed was a small empty matchbox that I always put my moon pendant in before sleeping. After I closed and put my arms through the strings of the bag, I walked out of the room and shut the door.

I made it up to Floor Fifteen before getting distracted. That was actually a personal best! I saw a scattered mess of papers and books through the windows that showed everything inside of the library. I looked over through the wide open doors to the cafeteria and saw stray wrappers and packaging to astronaut space food scattered on the floor.

We all had a chance at going to space for some reason, so we all eat freeze-dried meals to train our appetites to be used to the space food.

I walked up the stairs and made my way to the wings to get my last looks of the places I would report to each day for doing some new thing, whether it be a test in one of the simulators or learning some new or review lesson.

I suddenly noticed how there was not a single dead body lying around any of the areas I passed by. Was someone alive and taking care of everything? Did those enemy animal-human-monster-alien soldiers take what was left of the dead students' souls with them to present to their leader? Were any Garrison recruits taken hostage alive? Was this part of an extreme prank planned while I was out cold? Are these questions really boring and too mainstream in other stories making this whole paragraph just cringe-worthy? Honestly, I do not even understand why I even write. I do not even know what sparks me to do things that I would look back and get so horrified that I vow to never do again and eventually do again. Words will never be able to explain how weird and awkward I can be.

I eventually decided to not think about where the missing bodies were. It made me more and more fearful about if I was being watched or tracked by those purple furries. Sadly, the more I tried to think about something else, the more I thought about the things that I do not know.

I walked back down the stairs to Floor Fifteen. I passed the cafeteria, the library just across the hall from the meal room, and I saw a shadow move from inside the technical room. The door was wide open, the main lights were out, but the glow of computers that could never turn off made enough light to cast a shadow on the inward-facing wide open door. I would not be able to tell you exactly who or what it was because I was already running into the record room and was hurriedly locking the door I closed right as I made it inside.

Everything was disorganized and scattered. It was like a tornado hit the room and then the storage cabinets and drawers threw up over how messed up everything was. I could not see any marble or whatever other counter top material because file folders were in toppled stacks that covered the entire space. The floors were so cluttered that I could not make one step anywhere and not have part of a card stock file folder or two under my shoe. The cabinets and drawers and bins and all the other places where all types of records of each recruit are held were all wide open.

I started to have a desire and idea for a task. I wanted to reorganize the mess because I felt like I was going to be hiding for a while. I have a hard time keeping myself chill when things are not neat and tidy and when I am not doing something, so I proceeded to pick up the files and put them into three stacks: pilots, engineers, technicians. The floor had layers of files resting on top of each other. The layering was like a few inches of snow on top of winter grass. When you step on it, the sides of your leg and ankle have a wall of layered snow and grass.

I got all files on the floor taken care of in regard to sorting the type of class each student took. I did not even dare peek at the inside of any folder. All of that is private information even if they are all dead. The tab of the folder has the last name, first name, and the class the recruit was in. The front of the folder had a picture of each student here taped on. Some people were actually kind of cute, but nobody could ever make me stop having feelings for Pidge. Speaking of him, I did not see his folder on the floor. I saw nobody I actually knew.

After splitting up each class, I rearranged the stack into alphabetical order by last name for each member in each group. Time was passing quick, but I was not paying attention to that at all. Time was not important to me at that moment.

I moved the alphabetized stacks over to the corner of the now nice and clean floor. I repeated the process with the smaller mess on the top of the long counter top coming out from the wall. This batch did not require much since most of the files were on the floor.

I realized that I have not seen a folder for Madelyn, Pidge, or me. It was odd to me because I did not understand why it was that way. I assumed that I was not paying attention enough to spot them, and I started to file the folders back where they were. Each storage unit had a label on it, so I put each folder where it belonged.

When I filled the drawer cabinets with as many folders as I could fit, I realized some labels were missing by noticing how many folders were still not put up and away. I looked around to see if there was anywhere else that had a label and access to a storage spot. I noticed above the counter top was a line of cabinets like what would be found in a kitchen. All doors were shut but one. The one open door had a small stack of folders hanging out just inside the storage spot. I guessed that those files were stray, so I climbed onto the counter top so that I could reach the folders.

I retrieved the stack, and I got myself back down to standing on the ground.

The stack looked to have had about five or so folders in it. The top folder had a picture of a slim, lean, male with dark brown hair and eyes as blue as the ocean. His skin tone looked like he had a Caucasian parent and a Latino parent. This guy seemed like all the ladies would die to date him, but he would decline every single one because he believes his friends come first. This first person was named Lance McClain, and he was a pilot like Madelyn. We probably would get along well since he looked like he would be very smart and caring. I looked at his picture again, and I remembered how he would always prank me with Ally, my previous roommate. I punched his picture on the folder and moved on thinking _We're even now._

The folder underneath had a picture of a male with a wide build and body. He wore an orange head band on his forehead that was tied at the back. This guy looked like he would be someone who would be the ultimate safe space that the universe has ever seen! Hunk Garrett was the name I saw, and he was an engineer. I remembered how he was in my class. He was a quiet student, so nobody really knew him.

After I put Hunk Garrett's folder down on the cleaned counter, I saw a familiar face. It was the one and only Pidge Gunderson.

The folder had stacks of papers inside of it. I knew that most papers in folders are not the best thing to have since they are almost always there for a negative reason. I did not want to see any of Pidge's bad documents, but once I put his paper-filled file down, a single sheet came out somehow and landed on the floor with its title heading right side up and directly in my line of sight.

I noticed the heading's words were different than what I would normally see sticking out of the corners of folders. This one read, "Investigation DNA Results: Positive Match"

I was not able to stop myself from reading more. This was concerning me too much for me to look over. I picked up the document and read every word all the way down.

"DNA match: Katie Holt; Banned from the Galaxy Garrison and will be charged for trespassing if found."

This explained a lot of things I wondered about Pidge. He (I guess I am now at a point where I can call Pidge a she) would always show odd behavior when I would talk about feminine or masculine stereotypes or make a comment about how nice someone I see would be cute as the other gender.

Also, Matthew Holt and Pidge's real name, Katie Holt, have the same last name, and Matthew was on the Kerberos mission, another touchy topic of Pidge. I can remember seeing a picture of Pidge and a male that looked taller than her over by a rocket that is not on the property of the Garrison. I actually never saw a spaceship like that! The moment made me feel like I was really stupid because I never put the pieces together to find out what my crush was hiding.

I guess now, I can be telling the complete truth when I say I am only attracted to females and not sugarcoating anything.

The next folder had a picture of a trash can taped on the cover. Some people may see an Asian and Caucasian female (I do not know myself which race you saw since all I see is a trash can) with dark, dark blue eyes it almost was an indigo shade. A beauty mark would be on her face just below and outward from the left corner of her lips, and she had a couple more in other spots of her face. The girl had hair as dark as a clear midnight sky, but her forehead was all but clear due to acne taking over her face and sadly did not pay for the rent. Her wide, open smile showed her big front teeth which are not long enough to be called buck teeth, but they were almost long enough to stick out when she would close her mouth.

The headshot appeared to show part of a necklace. The chain came in and out from inside the middle core in the center of a shining silver piece that if not for it being welded on the top of a shape that appeared to be a circle, there would be an opening at the bottom. The circle had a blue background almost like the east sky during a sunset, and there was a section of a cream or white-colored curves intersecting and stopping after that point. The inside of the curves were filled in with the cream color to form what looked like a waxing crescent moon.

To you, that is what the picture looked like, but to me, I saw a metallic, silver trash can with black biodegradable bags sticking out from under the shinny, silver, metal lid.

The name on the folder had a black permanent marker rectangle over the left half of the folder. That was odd to me since my name was really easy to spell. Instead of the label saying "Mika Porter" like I thought it should say at the time, to the right of the scribble, the words, "Mika Kogane; Commander In-Training".

I found many odd things in regards to what was on my label. The most obvious one to me was that my class did not say "Officer In-Training" like it should. Nobody, not even the head of all ranks, Commander Iverson, told me that I was training to be at his level. I guess the sudden teacher switch was not because of the change in my age.

The next somewhat obvious part of my folder was that I had documents inside of the folder. I never got in any level of trouble, so I was curious on why I had a small stack of papers stashed in my file.

The top page was my basic information submitted when I was accepted into the Garrison at age fourteen. I was there for about a year, but I was not considered a student. The only reason why I was chosen at such a young age was because the test scores I made in the placement assessments were higher than what the average twenty year old got. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of questions given to me, I only got five wrong. My physical strength was not that good (and it actually still is not the best feature of mine), but I guess the people deciding who made it in or not looked over that part.

The other pages were all recommendations and invitations to put me into new programs that I thought were way above my league! In fact, a piece of paper was an invitation to go on an outer space mission to collect samples of unidentified elements. Another was explaining that I was chosen from my most recent class, a group of people who were secretly monitored for a whole year to have a chance to take over the Garrison, to replace Commander Iverson and be the head boss of the Garrison. I thought staying on Earth and being my own boss was much better than putting my life at risk. I realized both of those invites were useless since nobody was alive. Then, I had an idea. I knew how I can learn fast, so I thought if I could read up on everything about engineering and technology, I could reopen the Galaxy Garrison! After all, this place will always be my home sweet home!

I read the name one more time, and that was when I realized an even bigger problem.

At that time, I was clueless on why my last name was changed to a name I had never heard of in my entire life. I guess you could say _I was not feeling like myself!_

You have got to be a complete liar if you did not find that clever. Okay, I will try to actually be creative when making jokes.

The last folder had a picture of a very nice-looking guy on the cover. It was too bad there was a big, fat, red "X" over his picture in permanent marker. I knew that meant the guy was kicked out. I noticed that he had black hair like a clear midnight sky, eyes so indigo I could bet nobody was able tell whether they were more blue or purple (and what genetic mutation caused it to have any hints of purple at all), and his appearance was so similar to me that I had to put my photo next to his and compare. The only difference was our hair length and how much acne I had then.

I looked at the name. Once I read, "Keith Kogane", my mind started to make connections that I could not understand then.

I thought to myself, _Man! This guy could be my brother!_

Then, reality hit me. Odd snippet moments of space and a small home and walls of a huge, shiny, white building came into my mind as I started to hear someone or something knocking on the doors. I made sure I was not moving as the flooding visions poured into my thoughts.

Do you wonder when I will provide the backstory chapters? Well, the time has come. Your patience has been noted, and the next few chapters are your reward for staying and reading!


	4. Chapter 4

This is part one of my flashback chapter group thing! I hope you enjoy this and it helps you have an easier time with connecting the dots of this autobiography! By the way, since this is like a story inside the story, I will be telling these next few chapters in third-person point of view. It seems like it would fit better!

~~

About twenty or so years ago, two alien ships crashed and landed in different spots on the planet Earth. A silver ship that was shaped just like a lion landed on what the people on Earth would call "South Africa" near a diamond mine, and a magenta-lit, black jet landed along the USA-Mexico border.

~~

IN AN ARID PART OF TEXAS NEAR THE BORDER OF MEXICO: ABOUT TWENTY YEARS BEFORE CHAPTER ONE

A small jet black aircraft crashed just inside the border of Texas in the United States of America. The magenta lights inside dimmed, and the last bits of the power energy was used to open the hatch so that the alien pilot could get out.

Marika, the stranded pilot, walked onto the sandy ground and felt both thankful and worried at the same time.

The planet she landed on was not like any other planets she had seen. The Galra Empire never took over any planets with this many features. The Galra Empire had a government that was full of selfish, inconsiderate buffoons, but she would have never been able to express that.

Marika would help the citizens of planets taken over by Emperor Zarkon and his cruel, brutal army, but one day, Marika, who was about eighteen years old, spotted a girl that seemed to be almost in her teenage years. The girl was on a planet that had nobody ruling over it. Marika landed her jet nearby, and when Marika tried to approach the girl who looked nothing like any race Marika met before, the girl ran away.

Marika ran after her while yelling, "I am here to help! I am not like other Galras!"

The girl stopped. "How can I trust you when your military killed all other people of my race?"

Marika showed a gentile smile. "My name is Marika. You may not have head of a wanted Galra soldier by the name of 'Jerena' since you have no technical equipment that will show the latest news."

The girl paused. "Yes, I actually have. The video footage of Jerena looks just like you. Am I right when I say that you are her?"

"You are! How do you get the news? I see no equipment."

The girl smirked. "My name is Nadia. Allow me to show you everything."

Marika followed Nadia to a huge grey lion ship.

"Where did this come from?"

"I found it."

"What can it do?"

"Come inside and see!"

The two girls explored everything. Marika was amazed.

Then, ships piloted by Galra soldiers started to shoot. Nadia sat down and controlled the lion and dropped Marika in her ship. They took off into outer space, and Marika shot lasers as the ships crept closer.

Marika was not paying attention to what was in front of her, and she ended up crashing into the lion. Both of the ships lost control and tumbled into the atmosphere of Earth.

That was what happened up to that point.

Marika walked around to see if there was anyone that could help her out in any way. Just as the sun rose from her first night on Earth, she spotted a house at the bottom of a cliff. Marika ran to it, and she stood at the door expecting it to open up automatically. Nothing happened or moved, so she tapped on the dusty glass frame.

Marika heard movement coming from inside the building. The little handle sticking out on the door started to rattle and turn, and it opened by curving inward. On the other side was a man that was much shorter than Marika.

When the man saw Marika, he jumped back out of fear.

Marika tried to smile and approach the new being like she did with Nadia.

"Do not be afraid! I am the secret soldier helping citizens of the planets taken over and abused by other people of the Galra Empire!"

The man had a blank look indicating that he was confused.

"Is this planet being colonized by the Galra Empire?"

The man spoke with an accent Marika never heard, "sorry, miss. Here on Earth, nobody even knows about there being other life on other planets!"

"Oh. Is there any way to get back into outer space?"

The man smiled a bit. "Come inside. We can talk there."

~

The man brewed some iced tea as Marika walked through every room and got amazed over how simple everything is. Clocks were in the shape of a circle with three pointy things that move to tell time. This was different from the digital clocks that did not require so much effort to tell what time it was. Things were plugged into the wall to get power. Knobs were used to push or pull doors to get into different rooms. Bulbs were stuck into sockets to provide light.

When Marika arrived back into the living room, the man was sitting back on the sofa and sipping the tea.

"I poured you a glass. It's on the table right behind you."

Marika turned and saw a table with a transparent cup made of glass. It was so crystal clear that she could see the light brown liquid inside.

"That's called iced tea. It's one of my favorite drinks."

Marika took a sip and realized that it tasted pretty nice to her.

"I like this. It is probably one of the best drinks I had from an exotic planet."

The man smiled a bit. "I'm glad you like it. What is your name?"

"You can call me Marika."

"My name is Jason Kogane, but people here just use the first name. You have a beautiful name, Marika."

Marika started to get bashful feelings. "I think Jason is a nice name, too."

They started to talk about common things on Earth and where all Marika visited. Marika realized since Earth life was so underdeveloped that she would not be able to get back to her people, but she was okay since she was now discovered to be the wanted criminal for betraying the Galra Empire.

Jason offered to provide everything Marika would need as if they were a married couple. Almost a year later, they declared themselves as a married couple with a private ceremony (Marika chose to keep herself hidden from other humans since Jason predicted they would not be accepting like he was). A few months later, the happy couple learned that they were going to be expecting a child. This was extremely exciting news to the Kogane couple, so when they found out Marika was going to deliver twins, they were overjoyed!

The night before the twins were planned to be welcomed to life, sounds of scrambling paper and pens woke Jason up. His wife was anxiously writing words down on the papers.

"What are you doing, love?"

Marika shushed her husband and continued to write.

"Is everything okay?"

Marika said as she continued to write, "when a Galra becomes a mother, she will get a vision of her child's life story. I just got the visions for our kids! I need to remember them because they will not come back!"

Jason asked, "what did you see?"

Marika told him that she will explain once everything was documented. By the time Marika finished, Jason was sound asleep again.

Marika and Jason agreed to name the two Mika and Keith, and they both had big, beautiful, indigo eyes. Marika named Mika that because it was similar to her name. Keith was decided by Jason.

The two were very beautiful babies, but they only looked like two humans. This made Marika have an idea for gifts to give them.

Mika was given a necklace of a moon with red streaks coming down. A knife was put away into a safe spot for Keith. It was a gift from the Blade of Mammora for helping out the colonized planets. Marika saw some of the group's signs in her visions for Keith.

Marika talked about the visions with Jason that night.

"I saw two lion ships. One was red and one was silver. The silver one looked just like the lion the young Altean girl flew. I saw her grown up and looking like a doctor in Mika's vision. Keith would be in the red one, and he would be one of the new paladins of Voltron. I did not see much for Mika after seeing Nadia and another human male lying with wounds."

Jason quickly got worried about Mika since her fate was unclear. He suggested that Marika should leave Mika to be cared for by another family since Mika would be at risk if she knows about the other species'. Late one night, Marika put Mika in a basket by the doors of a home, put the necklace off to the side of the basket, and walked away with a depressed heart.

On the way back home, someone saw Marika and thought she was a wild animal. The guy got out one of his pistol guns and shot Marika enough times to kill her.

~~

ON THE SURFACE OF A SOUTH AFRICA DIAMOND MINE; ABOUT TWENTY YEARS BEFORE CHAPTER ONE

Inside of the lion ship was a young girl that looked about sixteen years old, and when she came out of the ship, a small group of people had already gathered around to observe.

As the young lady walked out of the lion's mouth, her sea green markings sparkled in the sun's rays. The people surrounding the lion were amazed at their new addition.

One woman was not as scared as everyone else, so she asked what the alien girl's name was.

"My name is Nadia. I was held captive by Galra troops. I crashed into a ship that appeared to be helping me. Where am I? What planet is this?"

The woman smiled. "Welcome to Earth, Nadia."

Nadia thanked the woman. The rest of the crowd was not afraid anymore. A young boy about her age ran up to her and shook her hand. Then, the maturing young man stood next to the woman and whispered, "mom, can she live with us? You can finally have the daughter you lost that was supposed to be my twin sister!" The woman whispered back, "I was already planning on doing just that. Now, introduce yourself, Ty-man!"

"My name is Ty. You are welcome to stay my house!"

Nadia laughed a bit. The boy was actually really cute to her. 

Ty's mother treated Nadia like her own daughter. To keep her identity hidden she wore a headscarf to hide her pointy ears and wore glasses and makeup to cover the sickle-shaped marks hidden. 

Nobody knew how to fix the lion, so the community kept it hidden in one of the diamond mines. The mine was never used, and all ways to it were blocked.

Nadia became skilled with medical things. She was so good at it that she applied to work in the Galaxy Garrison at age nineteen. Ty came along and worked as a nurse there to make sure nobody would find out Nadia's secret. Together, Ty and Nadia took a plane to somewhere in the arid USA.

When they got off of the plane, Ty pulled a ring out from inside his coat pocket, keeled, and proposed to Nadia. She agreed!

As Ty and Nadia worked with the sick, they spent their leisure time planning their wedding. A couple of years passed, and the Galra ship crash, discovery and takeoff of the blue lion, and the Galra Empire's siege of the Garrison happened. The Galra soldiers took control and started to wipe out the people. A day later, a girl named Madelyn Whiting walked in with the eighteen year old Mika knocked out hoisted over Madelyn's shoulders.

"This is Mika Porter. I found her outside. She's breathing, but she won't wake up. Is there anything you guys can do? Please?"

Nadia identified the problem as a coma, and Madelyn told Nadia, "make sure she lives. She had a hard life, so she shouldn't die without experiencing some happiness."

Mika was identified using blood samples, and Nadia noticed something strange in her genes. Galra DNA was found along with human DNA.

"Marika is alive. Marika had a child with a human."

Ty did not understand what his fiancé meant. "Do you want to explain what you mean?"

"A soldier of the enemy civilization, Marika the Galra Empire, helped me escape from the prison. She crashed into a different spot from us. This girl has powers that can save us all."

Madelyn was clueless on what the two were talking about, so she asked if anything else was strange.

"It appears as if she had a twin that used to be a recruit here. Keith Kogane. His information came up as a possible other match!"

Madelyn spoke up and said, "I am one hundred percent positive that Mika is a girl. We were placed in the same barrack, so I was around her long enough to know. I can verify that she is a genuine female."

Ty asked, "are there any records of any sex change procedures put into the system?"

Nadia looked. "All I see is something about running away from a mental hospital."

Madelyn froze. "She never told anyone about any childhood moments before arriving here."

Everyone paused and was silent for a while.

Madelyn suggested that she should put Mika's printed data sheets away in her record file and never come back since it would be risky to draw attention to the room. Madelyn already got into a partnership with Commander Iverson, so she was not completely on her own and helpless.

Madelyn offered to paint something nice for Mika to wake up to, and Madelyn finished up with her final touches of the dark red and silver flower pattern on the ceiling. She left and never came back.

Everyone liked the idea, so that was how everything worked for the next four months. Nobody knew if the other group was alive, and there was no way to find out. The two groups assumed that the other people were dead from that point on.


	5. Chapter 5

This is part two of the flashback chapters! In this chapter, I will talk about every flaw of each foster home including my last one. This time, I will not be weird and abnormal and use third person point of view!

~

The first place that I stayed in was my home until I was four years old. I was very young and could not remember much at that time, but now that my life story and my newly discovered brother's life story is crystal clear in my mind, I can tell you everything.

The first house was in a small but very expensive neighborhood. Everyone had the nicest hovercrafts (normal cars were long gone and ancient history at this point, so the child of a plane and a motorcycle known as hovercrafts were used to get from one place to another), and everyone owned the highest quality of possessions.

My guardians at the time were entrepreneurs for a business that sold various types of clothes. My presence was not an issue until the business started declining in sales. Then, the family decided to give me up since I was not a real member of what they called "family."

~

The second home I lived in was where the abuse first started. I was only five years old, but I knew about as much as the average eight grade student. This made my guardians think I was different and a borderline danger to society. I still do not understand the reasoning they had. Why does being an above average student make me a dangerous person? This I will never be available to find the answer to.

One random day, a woman who I had met after being rejected from my first home took me back to the adoption center. I try to never think about that place. It brings back memories that I want to forget forever.

I would prefer to not write about any of the other homes since the thought of how I was not good enough for the families makes me have negative emotions. I hope that you understand and kind of get the idea of how idiotic and unfair foster care homes can be in my time.

I will be telling you all about my last foster home that has a very important part in what all happened that turned my childhood from amazing to terrible!

I spent rougly two years and a couple of months in the home of the Bowers family located in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. The woman I referred to as my mother, Pamela, was pregnant three times, but each of the three young children died when they were born. Pam's husband, Greg, was very close to his wife. They seemed to love each other a lot more than most married couples do, and both of them showed behaviors that made me think that they really wanted to have and love a kid they could refer to as their own.

The house had two floors plus an attic. The upstairs level was a single room about as big as the living room, one of the biggest spots in the house. This room was for storing Greg's various belongings like records from his father, Grandaddy Dean and old pieces of useless technology and for the computer. Greg worked in the Information Technology (IT) business, and so many parts of tech gear became useless.

Since there was an overnight discovery of new ways to work computers and devices a while back, the computers do not even have any way to use some pieces of equipment people like you and your friends use and depend on every day! Is it true that you have to use a long cord to charge something called a cell phone?

Well, sooner or later, the struggles of using cords (struggles I never had to deal with) will be eliminated as many other new and improved methods will be presented. The overnight process started when I was about six years old, and now, I do not think I can remember a time when doors would have knobs that turn.

~

I am not sure if this book will be able to make it into the past (which is where I want it to go to), but if it does correctly and successfully get transported in the old times by some method I have not heard of, I would like people who live in the late years between 2010 and 2020 to read this. I think it would be cool for those people to read it since I have read about events that happened in this time frame.

~

In the downstairs and ground level floor, the kitchen, living room, front door spot, and dining room were all connected. I had a bed in the child bedroom. The walls were painted with a pastel pink color since each baby expected was going to be a girl. The adult bedroom was on the other side of the house.

Pam and Greg would treat me just like I was actually a biological that they made. They would take me places and be okay with leaving if I had some sensory overload feelings.

~

Sensory overloads are something that is part of what my autistic features include. I would have an overwhelming moment if something was too loud or too crowded. I would start off by twitching, walking faster than normal, fidgeting, and more. After a little while into showing these behaviors, I would start to hyperventilate (breathing in and out heavily and quickly), and soon I would cry. By the time I would be hyperventilating, I would be unable to communicate like normal.

~

Pam was more keen and helpful since she said that she had a friend who had a child with much a more severe case of Autism. Greg would mostly follow his wife and my plan.

At around the time of the sunset on the New Year's Eve when I was eleven years old, Pam and Greg called me out of my room. I paused Killbot Phantasm 1, a game I was playing on the limited edition Mercury Game Flux console, a Christmas gift from Pam and Greg I got just a few days ago. I walked into the living room to see them sitting next to each other with some space that was always left for if I ever decided to work on my fear of tight spaces (also known as claustrophobia), but I sat on the ottoman across from them like usual. Little did I know that this was going to be a serious conversation about family.

Pam spoke up first with her soft, smooth, sweet, Southeastern American accent.

"Mika, we want you to feel at home and like you are part of the family. We think that from this new year and so on, you should be able to call us your mom and dad and feel comfortable with saying that. We both know that this is a difficult question to answer, but we want to know if you want us to adopt you and be your legal parents?"

Greg added on to the conversation topic by mentioning, "we also want to promise you something. Nothing that we do will change because you will become one of us. We have treated you in the past just like we will in the future. We want you to have parents that will be just as much of a family as your original family would be. The choice is completely up to you, and we will be okay with any answer you tell us."

I happily agreed to be adopted by them. I thought they were actually going to mean and carry out what they promised because I thought they were genuinely wanting a child.

That February, I was officially adopted and legally became Mika Bowers by the Georgia State Government. When we walked out of the doors of the courtroom, I was beaming because I was so happy. Now that I look back and think about all of this, I am starting to notice how I put no thought into how the previous homes were or how quick the Bowers family wanted me to be with them or how I did not even think about what could happen if they did not plan to be living up to their vow. Now, the thoughts of what happened after February Twenty-First still haunt me in my sleep.

~

Once we walked through the doors of the house I planned to call mine, everything changed. I was hungry after having to be in a courtroom for many hours, so I asked Pam, "what are we going to have for dinner?"

Pam snapped at me, "you are eleven years old. Most nine year old girls already know how to prepare a meal for themselves!"

I thought she was just stressed about all the fuss being made in the courtroom. The judge was asking about my mother and father since they have not given any signs of approval for my adoption. Eventually, the judge decided that the status of my real mom and dad being alive was unknown, and I was pardoned from doing a DNA test since I was a minor and mentally disabled.

Pam was actually stressed, but I soon learned how that was not the case for saying that to me.

I made some type of frozen meal in the microwave, and I ate that for dinner. I was ignored for the rest of the night, but I slept nice since I had no idea that the cruelty was going to be more than just a one-time thing.

I woke up the next day, and I got myself ready for school while Greg got himself ready for work and while Pam slept in. I was completely on my own as I walked to the school which was only a few minutes away.

I got home and did my homework, and I accidentally left my papers scattered on the kitchen table. Greg came home, and he yelled at me about how the table must be cleared so that people could eat on it. I hurriedly packed the papers in my backpack without even thinking about how they would get wrinkled and bent up when I would put my binders inside my backpack later on.

The same process happened for the next few weeks. Being yelled at because of simple errors and being neglected of love and helping hands was the norm for some time.

One day, I had enough of it. I waited for Greg to walk through the doors so that I could immediately ask him about if he remembered the promise. Immediately after I asked him that, Greg's face immediately got a look of anger. Before I could run away, an open hand of his slapped me right across my face.

If you are sensitive to talk about physical violence, now is the time to go directly to the next chapter. I do not want you to get a triggered feeling.

From that day forward, I was physically abused each and every day. I was a very sensitive and fragile person back then, and nothing has changed to be honest with you.

Some days, I would sneak out of the house and walk to the nearby park and back. I am pretty sure Pam and Greg Bowers still do not know that I did that to this day. I learned to escape anything at a very young age because sometimes, I needed to escape the cruelly I suffered in each and every foster home I was in.

This was the average day I had for a while.


	6. Chapter 6

I attended a school that was close enough to get to and from by walking, and I had a friend in eighth grade that was in every club I joined. His name was Matthew Holt, and we had a lot in common. Just like me, he was into nerdy things like math and science and factual things, and he had a very supportive and motivational personality. I trusted him with many of my secrets, and one day, I felt comfortable enough to tell him how I was treated at home.

As I walked out of the school parking lot with Matt like normal, we were talking about the average topic category: science or math.

Matt and I were seeing who could say the most geek puns before running out.

Matt said, "I heard Oxygen and Magnesium started dating! OMg!"

I replied with, "I didn't find that HUMERUS. You only make good puns PERIODICALLY."

"Well, all the good puns ARGON."

"WATT? Of QUARTZ there's more!"

I paused and decided at that point was my now or never time.

"I need to B. CEREUS about something."

Matt remained cheery but got more alert.

"Sure. This game has gotten too CORNEA"

I took in a deep breath and exhaled.

"You know how I was adopted by my CURRENT parents? Well, I have been PHYSICally asSALTed many times by my dad after that."

Matt froze. His happiness faded into a sympathetic face that screamed "I care" without him even needing to move his lips.

"This is SHOCKING. When did this start?"

"After I was legally theirs, I was treated like I was inVISIBLE. I asked my dad about it, and his REACTION was NEGATIVE. He HERTZ me a lot. That's why I wear long sleeves: to cover bruises."

I rolled up my right arm's sleeve to show some bruises and scratch marks from the weekend before. I rolled my other sleeve up to show slit marks I made using one of the kitchen knifes I hid under my bed.

"This was a PRODUCT of my UNSTABLEness. I did this."

Matt gasped out of sadness and regret that he could not stop me.

"How do you CURRENTLY feel?"

"I feel ReLEAVEd that it is not something I hide from you anymore."

"Is there anything I can do to help you? You are SULFURing with a lot, and I don't want you to feel bad."

"Just do not tell anyone else. I am going TIBIA okay."

"Think like a proton by being POSITIVE!"

I nodded. I was speechless at how Matt reacted. I carried on with my educated guess that he was a genuine safe space, and we talked about how each classmate in our periods was an absolute idiot that day.

I thought I could have trusted Matt, but I soon learned that I was one hundred percent wrong. I was absolutely sure that he would keep the personal story a secret, but after a couple of weeks, two unexpected, surprise visitors paid a visit to our house.

~~

About three weeks later:

I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my biology homework when my the cracked screen of my phone (an old model at this time but not too far different from phones in your time period) vibrated and lit up. I ignored the message sent as my dad walked down the hallway and into the kitchen to prepare some leftover pizza in the microwave and eat it.

About a little over a month ago, I learned that I was not allowed to touch my phone when I have homework to do. I learned this restriction just like how I found out about the other rules I was unaware of: slapping and some contact with a closed fist. I was still sly enough to break some of the rules while being unnoticed by my "parents".

After Greg ate the leftover pizza, he walked out of the kitchen and outside the front door to smoke a cigarette. As the front door closed, I quietly lifted my phone and pressed the home button to see a text from Matt. A few minutes before, he sent a message saying, "I have to tell you something. Reply when you can!"

I quickly unlocked my phone and began to type, "hey, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"

I sent the message as Greg came inside. I was never able to know what Matt was going to let me know about. I continued to fill in the blanks on my biology homework until I heard some hard, loud, knocks coming from someone who was just outside of the front door. I was about to get up and out of my seat at the table, but Greg was already unlocking the door.

The knob turned, and the door opened to reveal the person who was knocking. On the other side of the threshold, two police officers in the typical police officer uniform stood side by side next to each other.

"Is this the home where Mika Bowers lives?"

My heart dropped down to the ground as I walked up to the door and stood by Greg's side.

"I am Mika. Is there a problem, sir?"

The officer looked at me.

"How old are you?"

With a shaking voice, I replied, "I just turned thirteen a little over a month ago. You can come inside if you want to."

"We will not be here for long. We were contacted and told to come here because someone who wishes to remain anonymous reported that you have been hurting yourself and having suicidal thoughts and actions."

I felt like the only person who knew was Matt, but Matt made a promise to me that he would be loyal and keep my story a secret. I assumed that he decided to tell someone and the word got out from another person. The fact that Matt told one or more people made me feel a lot of betrayal. I did not trust him from that point on.

The officer instructed me to roll up my long sleeves on my dark grey shirt.

There, there were obvious sights of scars from where I cut, bruises more upward from my "dad" hitting me, and other marks from before.

"The bruises came from my dad! His abuse made me feel like I deserve to feel pain, so I would try and hurt myself in hopes that the God above I learned about in my last foster home will see that I have suffered enough and learned my lesson about being an autistic person is wrong! All of the guardians in each and every one of the temporary homes I lived in would tell me that my disability is not real and that it is a made up story of mine!"

Greg spoke up. "I would never do a thing to her! She was in some pretty harsh foster homes before, so she must have started doing this before."

The police officer did not even try to believe that I was telling him the truth. He told me to turn around so that he could put the shiny metal handcuffs on me and take me to a place that would "help me with my crazy, irrational behaviors". I begged the officer to believe me and realize that my dad was lying, but I was not successful. I gave in as I was escorted out of the house.

I was put in a police car that dropped me off at a mental ward. At the hospital, I was babied around and treated like I was a baby chimpanzee. Everyone would be watching my every move. It was unbearable to me. I had to escape that nuthouse, so I did.

Somehow, I had an opportunity come to me with no effort on my part! On the Christmas Eve that I was thirteen years old, everyone gathered around to sing carols, read Christmas verses from the Bible, bake cookies, watch movies, and more. I was not feeling well, so I rested until I looked through a window and noticed the outside guards were not where they were supposed to be. Without any struggling, I unlocked the window hinge and climbed through it. At that point, I ran to the storage units to grab my possessions.

I hurried as I changed out of the hospital clothes and into my normal outfit: a dark grey tee shirt, a darker grey skirt, and black flat shoes. I found and put on my moon necklace pendant I had for as long as I could remember, and I was just about to run out when I heard footsteps and saw brightness from a flashlight slowly creeping closer and illuminating the main hall.

I started to make an attempt to quietly find another way to rush out of the shelf maze warehouse and escape the crazy coop and be gone for good, but after making a few steps, I realized that the person patrolling the halls is close enough to hear even the most subtle of noises.

I stood still and remained motionless right where I was in hopes that the patrol guard will not turn into the aisle I was located in. I prayed in my mind that for some and any reason, my location would not be inspected or noticed, but the opposite of my wish came true.

The beam of the flashlight shifted its direction as the patrol guard made a left and a U-Turn immediately after. The light's glow was pointed right at me, and the guard stopped walking when he noticed my presence.

I expected to have a reaction involving being taken back to the main building and being punished and possibly arrested, but instead, the guard hesitantly said, "happy holidays. I know a gift you will enjoy. I'll get you out of here and help you out."

I was shocked by how the guard was eager to aid my escape.

"Thank you. What is your name?"

"My name is Lieutenant Officer Ryan Newton. Come with me if you want to be free from here."

Officer Ryan gestured for me to walk with him. He looked to be in his late twenties, and he was somewhat tall and muscular. He had a dark brown hair color almost exactly like an almond's top shade, and his eyes were tinted like a peanut shell.

We walked back out to the enterence, and I saw a police and military-use hovercraft parked outside. I noticed how the labels looked very familiar.

"Do I know you?"

Officer Ryan replied with, "I was the policeman who brought you here from your last family. I did not ever want to since you seemed normal enough to me, but I had to by law."

I got into the backseat and sat down. Officer Ryan told me his plan for giving a reason of why I was gone. He planned the lie to be that I was caught trying to escape, so he "took me to jail instead". I did not have anything better planned, so I approved the cover story.

Over the night, I was driven to a place far away so that I would be able to hide at and never get caught. I was in charge of creating a fake last name to use as part of my "real" name. Every time I got a new idea, I would say it out loud to get Officer Ryan's feedback.

"Hampton?"

"Did you get that idea from the hotel name we just passed?"

"Jones?"

"Too common."

"Umbridge?"

"I think people will assume you like books from your intelligence. Harry Potter books are a common and popular favorite."

"Russo?"

"Do you have biological Latino family members? If you do, use that, but if you don't, think of something else."

"Erickson?"

"Say, 'Mika Erickson' out loud and rethink that."

Finally, I proposed an idea that I felt was fool-proof!

"Porter?"

Officer Ryan paused to think about if there were any flaws to it.

"Not real common but not completely random, flows nice and naturally with your first name, I think that's a good one."

"From now on, I will be Mika Eliza Porter instead of Mika Estella Bowers. I planned a new middle name just in case."

Officer Ryan nodded out of approval. "I will change your records as soon as we get to your hiding location but before you actually go in. Remember to never give any hints about your past to ANYONE. Nobody will know beforehand anyways."

"I can do that. How much longer will it take to be there?"

Officer Ryan checked the navigator device on the dashboard.

"It will be less than thirty minutes. Do you want to know where I am taking you?"

I eagerly and excitedly nodded and answered, "oh my gosh! Of course, I do!"

Officer Ryan turned his head back so that I could be seen through the corner of his right eye and the road through his left.

"Have you ever heard of the Galaxy Garrison military school?"

I remembered how Matt was trying to make it into that place, but at that time, I could have cared less about his goals. I promised myself to never think about the good parts of him since they all could be lies just like his loyalty to his friends.

"My enemy applied to be there. We were friends until he broke a serious promise that put me in the situation I am living now."

"Who are they? How did they have an impact on you?"

I exhaled out of hatred for Matt.

"His name is Matthew Holt. I found out that he was the one who alerted the cops and spilled my secrets."

Officer Ryan quickly said, "it was your father. He discovered a kitchen knife under your bed with dried blood on it, and he reported it to us."

I suddenly felt extremely guilty.

"I ignored his calls and letters to the mental ward until he no longer tried for a completely false reason! Do you know how to contact him or if he made into the Galaxy Garrison?"

Officer Ryan bowed his head. "He was a crew member for a mission to take ice samples from one of Pluto's moons, Kerberos. They set off into space a little less than a month ago, and they won't be back for years. Your friend will be gone for a while, Mika."

I felt so guilty. My heart then felt much more broken than a boy getting rejected by a girl he loved for many years. I was completely speechless.

We spent the rest of the excursion in silence.

When we arrived at the location, we parked somewhere close by but hidden so that Officer Ryan could wipe out my records and change my name before I made my way onto the Galaxy Garrison's property.

Officer Ryan told me to walk up to an enterence alone, and he would monitor me until I get escorted inside. He wanted to be sure that I would be taken in before he left because if he left before that, there was a chance that I would be told to stay away and never come back, and I would have been stranded.

I walked up on the patio, and I knocked on the door that leads inside. Shortly after, two males in the same kind of military uniform approached the doors and opened them up.

The taller, more brawny man looked down at me with one eye shut and asked for my name.

"My name is Mika Porter. I want to train here."

The man laughed.

"We don't let in kids. Come back when you're older."

The second man, a lean and nerdy guy, looked up from his screen and said,

"Hold on, Commander Iverson. I looked up her records, and she is actually just barely old enough to join. She will have to pass some acceptance steps, but if she does, she can join."

Commander Iverson slowly nodded his head as he thought about what to do.

A couple of minutes later, Commander Iverson made up his mind.

"Come in, and follow me. I will supply you with everything you need as we test you on if you're Garrison student material."

I followed the men as we walked through the halls and down some stairs and through more halls. I was given a suit that looked just like everyone else's. The look included a long coat that was orange at the top until it met with a white color just below the chest line. On everyone's waists, they wore a black buckle belt. The pants were dark gray, and the heavy-duty boots were shiny and black.

I tried on the smallest suit they had, and it still was too big for me. I decided to deal with it in order to not have a big fuss made over it. I figured I could adjust and grow into it sooner or later.

After I got into the uniform, I was escorted to one of the empty bunkers. I ended up having to stay in the pilot area since the other classes were full. I was told that I would be training with everyone else in order to get accurate results. Each day, I would go to a different class (pilot, engineer, technician), and I would be watched and evaluated.

~

On my first day, I quickly made it to the pilot training area while everyone else hung around and talked. I saw Diana, one of the girls that was in a nearby barrack by mine, and I called out greeting while waving to her. Diana saw me, but she turned around to her social group as they all snickered to themselves. I thought someone did something silly behind me, but later on, I found out the truth. They were laughing at me.

I made it to the pilot training area before everyone else. The only other visible person in the room was the instructor. I knew my evaluator was somewhere, but I couldn't find them.

The instructor was a Caucasian female with light freckles, and her ginger hair was put up in a bun offset to her left.

I walked up to her so that I could introduce myself, and she firmly shook my hand and said,

"I'm Captain Krissi. You can stand next to me until I give you your spot in line."

I did so without verbally responding, but Captain Krissi called me back to stand where I was.

"Mika, remember to always reply to me with 'yes, ma'am' or 'no, ma'am'. I know you're new, so this is your freebie. Next time, you'll have consequences. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now, stand next to me."

"Yes, ma'am."

I stood as the sea of classmates started to pour in through the doors at the very last minute. The students got into a line and all faced Captain Krissi. The class started as soon as a bell sound stopped ringing through the megaphone speakers set up in the wall corners of the area.

Captain Krissi called out to the class, "in case you haven't noticed, we have a new student. Mika here will be joining us every so often to be evaluated. She is not an official student of the Galaxy Garrison, but she will be working hard to become one. Treat her like she's one of us. Is that clear?"

The class said in unison, "yes, ma'am!"

Captain Krissi asked, "does anyone want to be a volunteer to be Mika's partner, a helper who will catch her up and work with her on future projects?"

I heard someone sarcastically shout, "I'll be your buddy, small fry!"

Captain Krissi pointed at a tall, curvy girl with dark brown skin and curly hair cut to a length just below her neckline.

"Mika, go stand in front of Rachelle. She's right over there."

I hesitantly said, "yes, ma'am." I knew that the Rachelle girl was nothing but trouble the moment she spoke up.

I stood in front of Rachelle. She was like a tower compared to me, and she would bump into me as she changed direction to socialize with some other girls when Captain Krissi stopped looking at the area.

Class started with an overview of what we were going to do that day. That day, we were going to practice with the three different terms involving the rotation of any aircraft.

Captain Krissi put out a bin full of drones as she explained the concept of pitch, roll, and yaw. Pitch is like nodding your head, roll is like tilting your head to the side but still looking forward, and yaw is like shaking your head side to side in disagreement. It was a really easy concept, but all of the other girls looked like they were very confused about it.

Captain Krissi told everyone to grab a drone and the matching controller which was labeled. Rachelle handed me a drone and controller and told me, "here you go, small fry! It's just right your size!"

I looked at the drone in my hands and then to the drones in everyone else's hands. The one Rachelle got me was tiny! Captain Krissi noticed, and she suggested that I fly a bigger drone since they are easier to control and keep in the air.

I replied with, "I think I will stick to this one. I like to challenge myself in order to master the lesson."

Captain Krissi ended the dialogue with, "suit yourself."

Everyone turned their drone and remote controller on, and we all laid the remote down and waited for directions.

"This group only worked with the drones once, and y'all ended up spending the day figuring out how to work them. Most were still unsuccessful at the end of the class. Since almost all of you guys still don't get the controls, spend a few minutes getting comfortable with the basics."

Everyone said in unison, "yes, ma'am!"

We all grabbed our controller and put the drones on the ground in front of us where the remote was.

I slowly pushed the left knob upward, and the drone steadily increased in altitude. I felt proud of myself. Everyone else was struggling with keeping the larger drones under control, but I was able to walk around while keeping a flimsy, small drone stable and in the air. I could even change its direction when I turned to one side! Soon, a crowd of people started to circle around in their friend groups to stare at me and whisper their comments to each other.

Just when I thought that I was liked and admired by the class, I heard Rachelle teasingly shout, "hey, small fry! I think you outgrew that silly nickname!"

I exhaled a breath of relief. I wasn't even there for a full day yet, but I was already extremely tired of being called "small fry". Sadly, Rachelle wasn't quite finished with her statement.

"You are a smart girl, but you still got the looks of a young, little tot! You should teach me how to do this stuff, _BABY BRAIN_!"

I growled under my breath as Rachelle and her friends burst into loud, shrill, raucous laughter.

I pretended like I was unfazed about Rachelle's name-calling. To be honest, I wanted to rip her head off of her body and throw her head at her friends who were just as cruel as she was.

I refrained from reacting since I did not want to be kicked out of the Garrison. After all, that school was my hideout from being discovered by the authorities that I successfully escaped from.

~

The rest of my time in that class was pretty much a cycle. A new lesson was explained, the students practiced the lesson using drones, I end up doing the best, Rachelle and her clique assign a nickname that lacks creativity, and I end up wanting to do torturous things to her.

After we were dismissed, I walked to my bunker while everyone who noticed me made rude remarks about my size, and once I got to my room, I quickly finished my homework and rested.

~

The engineering and technician classes made me feel exactly the same way that the pilot classes did: the content was very easy, but my peers were just as vile as Rachelle.

~

The next time that I reported to pilot training, I was greeted by Rachelle.

"Hey, Throttle Bottle! How did you like the other classes? My tech and engineering friends _really_ enjoyed having you join em!"

I ignored Rachelle's taunts and carried on with my life. I kept thinking reassuring things to be sure that she did not and would not let her cruelty affect my learning experience. I believed that I could not change others and their actions, but I can adjust mine to not get upset by external negativity.

I kept taking the high road until Rachelle began to make fun of my necklace. At that point, I forgot about controlling my anger. I showed a side of me that is very different from my normal personality, and anyone who pushes me to the point where I unleash this side will beg on their knees for mercy with tears streaming down their face. Let's just agree that if and once I get mad at you, you will never think of me the same way as before.

As Rachelle approached me after her "greeting", she saw the pendant charm on the moon necklace around my neck from under my suit.

"Where'd you get that necklace? It's cute."

I responded with, "my mom gave it to me."

Rachelle asked if she could try it on, but I politely declined. I wanted it to not be a distraction since class would be starting soon.

Rachelle insisted that she should put it on, but I politely declined again. Finally, she grabbed the pendant charm, quickly pulled her arm back until the chain broke in half and came off from around my neck.

Rachelle snickered as she stated in the fakest voice I have ever heard, "oh no! I guess nobody can wear it now. Sorry I broke it! I guess you'll have to buy another one!"

I was extremely furious. I said through my gritted teeth, "you will be sorry for everything."

Rachelle sarcastically exclaimed, "ooh! Watch out, everyone! Mean-nut is not in a good mood!"

Without thinking, I screamed almost like a Viking would as he charges to his enemy, and I ran towards Rachelle with a thirst of vengeance for my hurt heart. I began with side-kicking Rachelle in the face A couple of times, punching her in the gut to make her fall to her knees and then to the ground, and then kicking her curled up body laying on its side on the ground.

All the while, I was yelling, "THIS IS WHAT YOU DESERVE FOR RIDICULING MY SIZE! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR MAKING EVERY MINUTE OF THIS CLASS THE WORST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR DESTROYING MY PROPERTY! THAT NECKLACE IS THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND! THAT IS THE ONLY ITEM I HAVE FROM MY FAMILY THAT I NEVER KNEW! MY PARENTS COULD BE DEAD! YOU DESTROYED THE ONLY PIECE I HAVE OF THEM!"

I was grabbed and pulled back out of reach by Captain Krissi. Rachelle slowly stood up and looked at me with wide eyes.

"I - I'm s-s-orry. I didn't know."

She extended her arm with the pendant charm in her open palm. I turned around and walked away without taking it. I thought it would be useless since I did not have anything to replace the chain with.

I was immediately escorted to the principles office, and I was assigned two days of in-school suspension. If an actual student did the same thing, they would get four days. I had to learn more than anyone else, so I could not fall behind.

As I made my way through the doors of the suspension room for the very first time, I looked around to see all of the students spread out in the class. I was told to sit at a desk in the back by a corner, and as I moved, I noticed a familiar face near my assigned desk. Rachelle was there, and she looked up at me as I sat down.

Moments later, I felt something hit my shoe. I looked down, and I saw the pendant with black yarn tied to make a loop just big enough to fit around my neck perfectly. I looked up and at Rachelle who was looking right at me. She gestured with her head to look down to her feet. I did that and saw a sticky note with a message stuck to the back of her shoe.

"I'm sorry for breaking your necklace. Meet me outside after this ends."

I subtly nodded hard enough so that only Rachelle could see. After that, I started to do the assignments left for me.

The pages were exams that would not be for a grade but to see what I know based off of prior knowledge and my first classes. The questions were very easy, but I heard that many students had trouble answering them. I never understood why that was the case.

I finished all three exams with a couple of hours left to spare. I pulled out a book that I checked out at the school library, and I began to read it until the dismissal bell rang.

Rachelle was waiting for me as I walked out of the door. I was the last one to leave since I would take forever to pack up my belongings.

Once Rachelle saw me, she pulled me into a hug. I squirmed to try and break free since I am not much of a hugger.

"Why are you being so nice to me now?"

Rachelle looked at me and said, "I'm more like you than I thought."

We started to walk as Rachelle told her life story about being affected by the foster care system. She noted that her cruelty comes from never understanding love and kindness, but she wanted to change those ways. I agreed to be Rachelle's first real friend and help her out with being nicer and a better student in the Garrison.

The time after my agreement was set had a great impact on my time at the Garrison. Rachelle's previous friends were given a choice to be nice to me or loose Rachelle's friendship, and everyone chose to not be nice to me. Rachelle and I both became victims of bullying, but we were fine with it since we had each other.

All the while, I would tutor Rachelle as I studied the material. Rachelle gradually got smarter, and her grades got better too.

It took a good bit of time for Rachelle to not respond to her former friends. Two girls in particular, an engineer named Raiyne and a technitian named Alyssa, were low enough to try and mess up the simulator that I used for my final test that would determine if I would be accepted into the Garrison or not. I ended up catching them as they put their plan into action, and they were kicked out of the Garrison because messing with technology was considered to be the equivalent of a "capital punishment".

As the two left, Rachelle started to tease Raiyne by singing _Rain Rain Go Away_. Once I heard a sentence, I quietly snapped, "stop it." Rachelle did just that after letting out a quiet groan.

I eventually took the simulator test, and I felt very confident that I would pass. I never got to go into a simulation, so I was feeling a little bit on the nervous side. Rachelle tried to reassure me about how I will be okay since I was considered to be a genius and a Garrison legend.

Once I came out of the simulator doors, I walked to the meeting spot Rachelle and I use every day, and I told her, "Rachelle, for once, you were right without needing any hints. The simulator was so fun and easy!"

We celebrated by spending the rest of the day in my dorm having a mini party. I played music, and we had a nice treat yourself time!

One random day that was about a week after I took the rescheduled simulator test, I was called into Commander Iverson's office to review my evaluation and determine if I was eligeable to be an official student.

I learned that out of all three of my pretests that I took in the suspension room, I only missed five questions from a total of 375. I missed two of the 125 engineer questions, two of the 125 technician questions, and one of the 125 pilot questions.

After I was told about how I was actually investigated and cleared because I was presumed to have cheated and how all threee set Garrison records for actual students and initiates that to this day have not been broken, I was at a loss for words.

Commander Iverson moved on and analyzed my written final exam. It was the exact same test as the pretest, so I expected to get around the same results. I did not get a single question wrong. I had a perfect score, and I was the only person that ever got one. Even as I write this, I still hold that title.

The only part I feared would keep me from being accepted was my outburst that got me suspended, but apparently, that was deemed to be overlooked since I had perfect behavior despite that one time. I had no reasons that would keep me from being accepted, and even if my suspension had any influence, my miraculous grades would still rule over it to accept me.

I walked out of the office with a new outfit that looked much different from the other students since I was approved to be in classes that would train me to be a pilot and an officer! I never did learn the specific role of an officer, but I still took the chance to be one. Very few people would be chosen for these classes, so I felt very lucky to qualify.

The new uniform I wore consisted of a light gray coat with a black lining on the outside ends, a black belt, and orange on the ends of my sleeves. The trained and official officers had three metalic gold stripes curved around the top of the shoulders near the neckline of their coats, but I was not trained enough to get them. The pants were a darker gray like my other cadet and initiate pants, and like before, my boots were black.

I put on the uniform before meeting up with Rachelle. When I saw Rachelle, I walked up behind her and waited for her to notice me. I wanted to include more of a surprise than my acceptance and my promotion.

Once Rachelle turned enough to see me, she jumped back because she did not expect to see me.

"Apparently, I got a promotion. I'm an officer-in-training now."

"What's that?"

"I don't know, but it sounds fun!"

Rachelle laughed. "Congrats, girlie!"

That night, Rachelle decided to run away from the Garrison because she found information on having a biological brother in South Africa. She slid a note under my barrack door explaining everything.

" _Dear Mika,_

_Thank you for being an amazing true friend. I found out that I have a brother, and I'm going to South Africa to meet him. You were like a sister to me, and I will never forget you. Good luck being better than everyone!_

_Love, Rachelle Morgan_ "

I woke up and read the note immediately after I saw it. I felt happy for Rachelle, but I also felt sad since I would miss her. I was proud of myself for being a good influence, and she can spread my love where she goes. I continued on with my Garrison life, too.


	7. Chapter 7

This is the last part of the flashbacks! I hope that everything makes sense now!

_Three Years Later_

I received a notice that my first bunkmate, Ally, was expelled for hacking into Garrison technology. I was only surprised because the authorities just found out. Ally would hack into the surveillance cameras at least three times a week for quite a while.

The second part of the notice was that a new student was going to be my new bunkmate.

I moved all of my things to one spot to be sure my new bunkmate would feel like they have plenty of space for their things.

I heard the pod door open and close while I was organizing the closet. I turned to see a curvy girl with long blonde hair put into a bun and dark brown eyes.

I smiled and cheerfully said, "I'm Mika. I'm an officer-in-training here. I made some space for you, by the way."

"I'm Madelyn. How old are you?"

I lightly laughed.

"I'm seventeen. I know that I look much younger!"

Madelyn looked a little bothered and uncomfortable.

"Oh. That's... nice. I'm going to go to the lunchroom... yeah. I'll talk to you later."

Madelyn exited the pod and didn't come back until curfew. While she was out, I decided that her hairstyle looked very nice. I tried to put my hair in a neat bun centered in the back, but it turned out being offset to the left and not well contained.

I reported to class the next day with my hair up in my take on Madelyn's bun. Everyone complimented me, and I noted how I was inspired by Madelyn in every response.

I asked Madelyn if she wanted to study together for the next pilot test, but she declined. I ended up doing well, but Madelyn almost failed.

I eventually stopped offering help and attempting to be nice. I wasn't mean, but I distanced myself to make Madelyn feel less annoyed by me.

_About a Month Later_

Pidge and I crossed paths during her first week there at the Garrison. I was sitting near the open doors to the cafeteria and was about to go to the library, but I saw someone looking around with a confused expression. I got up from my seat for an empty table and exited the cafeteria.

I always loved to meet and talk to the new recruits, so I approached the new student with my casual but nice mood.

"Hi, there! My name is Mika Porter. I am an officer-in-training here, and I have been in the Garrison for three years. How has your time been so far?"

She just looked at me like I was somewhat crazy. Eventually, she spoke up.

"It has been fine I guess. My name is Pidge Gunderson. I'm a technician. The only real issue with this place is the pilot and engineer assigned to work with me. They are complete idiots."

"At least they interact with you."

Pidge suddenly changed her attitude from feeling disappointment to realizing she was lucky enough to have a slightly functioning team. Madelyn and the others would always gossip about boys they think are much more important than communicating notices to me.

Gosh, she was so smart. I was so happy to be her friend. Sometimes, I would wish she and I were more than friends. I take that back. I always wished we were more than friends. I was really in love, but I made sure I was not crazy and obsessed.

~

Every day after, Pidge and I would meet up during break periods. Also, I would tell Pidge everything. The only secret I had was that I had feelings for her.

One day, I made a reference to the only video game that I ever really got into, Killbot Phantasm 1, and she looked shocked.

"I think making any more effort to talk to Madelyn is like trying to pass Level Sixty-Three of Killbot Phantasm 1 with only ninja stars, any of the katanas, and any of the knifes! You need some of the halluspheres, which take forever to obtain!"

Pidge looked at me like I was crazy.

"You play that game, too? I thought nobody did since it was exclusive to the limited edition Mercury Game Flux! They sold out in less than twenty-four hours! I would watch gamers playing it online, so that is how I know."

I told her that it was a gift from one of my foster parents.

"What's it like to be a foster child?"

"It is confusing. One day, a family loves you, and the next day, they beat you and call you crazy when you call the cops."

Pidge sat up. I could tell that she was concerned for me.

"What do the cops do? Anything?"

"They took me to a psycho ward. I managed to escape that and change my name. My real legal name is Mika Bowers, but i changed it to Mika Porter so that I would not get caught. Do not tell anyone. Even if you are asked about it."

Pidge turned to me and said in a serious voice, "I will not tell a single soul. No matter if I will be killed for saying nothing."

Then, we hugged. She was the only person I would hug at the time. Then, the two familiar faces yelled for Pidge to go with them to the simulator.

One day, Pidge and I met up like we normally would, but I had a very hard time seeing what was around me. My vision was an issue for a couple of months before that time, but it was very minor. When Pidge sat down, I thought she was someone else.

"Hey, I don't want to bother you, but would it be alright to move down a seat or two? My friend will be here any minute, and he probably will want to sit down where you are."

The person laughed.

"You should really get some glasses, Mika. Your eyes are getting worse.

Once I heard that the person was Pidge, I looked down as I tried to hide my feelings of embarrassment.

"You know that I can't do that."

Pidge groaned.

"You never told me why."

"There are many reasons. I could lose them, I could look like an idiot, I could break them, I don't know what I need, and the most important reason is that I can't go to space and find the people on the Kerberos mission with glasses now that the laser eye surgery isn't an option!"

Pidge was silent.

"I'm sorry. I forgot that I am the only person in the world that thinks that Iverson is wrong about the mission."

"You're not the only one."

"Yes, I am."

"I have proof that you aren't."

"Okay. Back it up."

"I believe that the explorers are alive, too. That's something I want to prove with you, but I need your help."

I got excited.

"What do you need me to do?"

Pidge talked about how she could build a computer and use it to track radio waves in space, but she needed help with getting everything. I pointed out that I could barely see, and she agreed to get eye contacts for herself but give them to me. I liked that idea, so we came to an agreement.

We built the computer, but I never heard any chatter. I just heard static. I still would go to the roof every night and try to hide my boredom. I wanted to impress Pidge, and I felt that not showing up for science projects could put a negative target on my back.

I eventually incorporated cleaning my contacts into my nightly plans. I would come out and onto the roof later than Pidge because I was unable to do that during the day. Also, Pidge would already be set up by the time I make it up.

This was how my average evening was for the rest of my time at the Garrison before Chapter One starts.


	8. Chapter 8

I came back to reality and heard that someone or something was trying to get in. I stayed quiet and read the contents for the guy just to be sure I wasn't going crazy. The male's name is Keith, and I found out has the same birthday, same real last name, and about the same appearance as me.

Then, the door was busted open. I didn't even pause to see who it was. My reflexes lead me to kick the intruder in the shin as hard as I could. Then, I recognized who came in. I realized that I just used my self-defense on Commander Iverson.

I stammered as I try to apologize and explain, but he stops me.

"I'm just glad you're alive. You're our only hope of getting those aliens off of our planet."

I got confused.

"What do you mean?"

Commander Iverson explains. "Your bunkmate Madelyn and I are the only Garrison survivors left. I want you to stop these purple animal freaks. I know you can!"

I got somewhat nervous.

"I doubt it."

Commander Iverson leans down to my level. "Are you questioning my order? You never have, and you better keep it that way!"

Out of fear, I quickly agreed. I walked out of the record room holding my folder and Keith's folder.

Madelyn turned down a hall and huffed out of anger when she saw me.

Honestly, of all the people who survived, it had to be Madelyn Whiting.

Once Madelyn was close enough to greet me, she groaned.

"At least someone smart like you survived."

I smiled.

"Thank you. That was the nicest thing you've ever told me."

"Don't get used to it."

Commander Iverson ignored our bickering and told us the plan for action.

"Your first job is to make sure Takashi Shirogane is alive. He will be able to help out. He was found and held in a nearby makeshift clinic. We have not been able to tell if he's still alive and there. You will go and confirm his state."

I brought up how both of us were unarmed, and Commander Iverson thought about what we could use.

Suddenly, he remembered that something helpful was left for me.

"Go to your barrack and look in your closet. You'll find some armor and an unknown weapon that a friend gave you."

"Okay!"

I walked to my bunker and saw a full set of silver and white armor. There was a weird shaped steering wheel-shaped item that I assumed was handheld.

I tried on the armor set, and it fit just right on me.

Madelyn walked in as I put the helmet on.

"Gosh, why do you have to be so much better than me at everything?"

I got very confused at what Madelyn just said.

"What do you mean?"

Madelyn sighed.

"You always do things better than me. You're smart, you can live through traumatic situations. You can even do a bun better than me!"

I tried to tell her how amazing her art is and how she managed to survive the experience while being awake and alert.

Madelyn was quiet.

"Did you like the flowers on the ceiling? I painted those."

"You did that?"

Madelyn shyly nods.

"You got my favorite color right."

"I also knew about you sneaking out. I followed you during the lockdown, and I got you to the medics."

I pointed out how I could have never hoist someone that far.

Madelyn sighs and says, "your intelligence and skill with analyzing data is definitely more handy for real work. The only time I would use numbers is for measuring how much materials I'll be needing for sewing! I've been jealous of you to the point where I would do everything I can to avoid you. That's why I don't wake up when you try. I was already awake."

I blurted out, "be happy you're artistic instead of autistic! Even though I'm smart, I'm still underperforming with many other things!"

Madelyn asks, "what does 'autistic' mean?"

I paused to try and form a simple explanation.

Once I lost hope in that, I pointed out, "this may take a bit of time. Get yourself to a stopping point and in a comfortable spot."

We paused to get comfortable and free of distractions. I tend to lose my focus easily when talking about Autism, and knowing that my audience is paying attention makes my struggle less extreme.

"Autism is basically a term used to give a common name to people with different smaller syndromes that are similar to each other in some ways. Some common signs of it are having trouble talking clearly, lacking vital social skills, getting overwhelmed by excessive sound or light, and more. It breaks into four categories, and the four categories have hundreds of specific conditions."

I could tell that Madelyn was already very confused, so I thought about how I could connect what I was saying to something she knows a lot about. Finally, I had an idea.

"Think about having many colors of many types of fabric. The fishnet fabric could be the first category since it is the easiest to see through. The people who could be in this are the most severely affected. They have the hardest time with being like you. The normal behavior is like the light, it goes right through in their case. Level two, three, and four get more opaque as the number gets higher. I am considered to be level four."

Madelyn's attitude changed from sour and annoyed by me to interested in my life.

"I don't think I have ever cared to interact with you enough to know what makes up who you are. Tell me more."

I got into more details with my personal traits that I have already pointed out in this story, and Madelyn told me about how she was a seamstress that made the uniforms.

She was the one that made my first official uniform since I was too small for any other size. My suit was the last one she ever made.

Madelyn was replaced by robots because of efficiency, and she had to pick on being a student or coming back home. Her dad wanted her to come back, but her mom wanted her to keep going. They already divorced when she was given the opportunity to work because of the same views.

I told Madelyn, "I know you don't like my offerings, but I will still offer you my friendship. You can take it or leave it."

"I know that I declined before, but as of now, I think I'll accept it."

We started to mingle as we made our way back downstairs. We reported to Commander Iverson's meeting spot, and I was given directions to the makeshift clinic tent.

I left the compound to find Takashi with a walkie talkie device to communicate with Madelyn. She decided not to go because she won't be able to defend herself if attacked.

When I made it to the tent, I noticed that it was abandoned. There was nobody, not even Takashi. I communicated that to Madelyn and then, I noticed a small house in a nearby valley, so I decided to see if Takashi was hiding in there.

Something else was pulling my attention to the house, so I walked down to the house in the valley.

Once I walked inside, I saw a bunch of notes, photos, and maps pinned on a wall. I felt like I knew the place. I felt like I have seen it in my dreams.

Suddenly, my mind starts to project visions of black and purple-lighted technology and hands with black and purple armor working it. A couple of seconds later, the person in the vision pauses.

I could feel the person's thoughts saying, "now's not the time to be thinking about home!"

I felt myself thinking out to them. "This may seem strange, but I see what you're seeing. You're looking through my eyes."

I could hear the person say, "guys! Someone is talking to me through their mind!"

I heard a voice that I recognized say, "tell them I said hi!" That was definitely Hunk.

Another voice that I recognized, this time by someone I despised, said, "Keith, your isolation from us is making you crazy!" That was typical Lance.

Then, a voice I would hear every night that would turn any terrible day into a nice one just by greeting me said something. "you should identify them."

I never expected someone like Pidge would be able to kick alien butt! I was very proud of her.

I thought, _"I'm Mika. I found your house while fleeing from the Galaxy Garrison."_

I looked at my folder and Keith's folder that I accidentally took with me.

_"If you're Keith, then I think I'm your twin sister."_

_"Yes, I am Keith. You must be the person that lived through the visions that filled in me earlier."_

_"Then you must be the one who lived a much simpler life than me."_

I was also overwhelmed with the story of Keith's life, but the only important part of his life was getting expelled from the Garrison. Keith told the group what I said through a messaging speaker.

Keith thinks, _"do you need anything to protect whoever's left?"_

_"I will need some weapons since this grey steering wheel probably won't do anything useful."_

Keith laughed. _"You'll get to know its value soon. Go ahead and take anything you could use to defend yourself We are busy approaching a mission."_

I decided to take a few knives, guns, ammo and even a hoverboard and rides to the Garrison.

When I made it back to the Garrison, I was greeted with being restrained by an alien soldier. I kicked it in the shin and began to fire guns to try and kill the wolf-human alien. My glasses kept falling off, and eventually, I just let them go off of my face.

Madelyn took some weapons and began to shoot. The guns did not do anything at all. I ended up tripping and falling as I pulled a trigger, and the bullet hit Commander Iverson.

Madelyn and I got distracted by that, and we were taken hostage on one of the Galra ships.


	9. Chapter 9

I freed myself from my cell as soon as the guard was out of sight, and I ran over to Madelyn's cell hoping that she was okay.

The reality was that she did not comply with the soldiers and was beaten. I freed her cell, and she took her last breath as she said, "go kick butt."

I left Madelyn there and began to search for an exit. I felt like I was going to be standing out too much, so I started to try and think of a plan. I thought to myself about how wonderful it would be to have a Galra form, and then, I morphed into a Galra! I saw myself through a window pane, and I felt like I looked really cute. I thought about how to get back to my normal self, and I morphed back into a human. I picked up on the pattern, and I got back into Galra form.

I started to walk to the exit doors, but I saw a shadow of a human walking around. I started following the shadow until I could see who it was. Once I could see who it was, I froze. I did not expect to know the person, but I knew her very well. It was Rachelle. She looked at me and started to run.

I forgot I was in Galra form, so I began to run after her softly yelling, "stop! Come back!"

Eventually, I caught up, and once I was in a good range, I greeted Rachelle with, "So the congrats for me making it in the Garrison was shown by you leaving?"

Rachelle froze in shock.

"Mika? How are you here?"

"I was trying to save the school."

"By dressing up and spying on the enemy?"

I laughed a bit.

"I found out that my mom was a Galra, so I'm half alien!" I changed back into my human form."

"That's creepy."

I smirked. "How did you get here?"

"I was suspected to know information about a silver lion robot thing. I have no idea that one existed!"

I shushed Rachelle. "You have got to be quiet. I will pretend like I will be taking you to another planet, but really, we will be going back to Earth. Do you want to do that?"

Rachelle nodded as I morphed. "I guess in that look, I can't call you Small Fry."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on."

We almost made it out, but I was spotted. The Galras spotted me and knew my plan since I was caught on cameras.

Rachelle and I tried to fight, and I felt like something was telling me to use the grey thing. I pulled it out, and as I held onto the bar in the middle, it transformed into a small pistol. It didn't do that anytime before!

I began to shoot, and it fired glowing light blue bullets that actually killed the Galra aliens. I began to shield Rachelle and shoot until I thought the coast was clear enough for her to make a run for it.

Once I felt like the time was right, I shouted, "RUN!" to Rachelle, but I wasn't very specific on how. I wanted her to escape in a straight path without pausing or switching directions since I knew she was a fast runner, but once she started, she would make quick pauses to decide where to go next.

I started to shoot at any Galras in her path, but she resumed from a pause in her escape and ran right in front of a bullet I fired.

Once Rachelle fell, I lost all control of my battle strategies. I ran over to her, and I began to cry and apologize.

Rachelle faintly said, "it was nice knowing you, Mika. We'll meet again sooner or later."

Then, all of the life in her eyes faded away, and I began to cry somewhat harder.

A few seconds later, a slide door opened below me, and I fell out of the ship and began to descend into Earth's atmosphere. I was very sure that I would die since I thought nothing could save me.

The helmet closed around my head so that I could still breath, but I felt like it was useless since I was likely to die by hitting the ground.

I began to think to Keith about what happened and what would happen, but then, a huge grey and white lion burst out of a mountain in what looked like South Africa. It charged to me and as it took me inside of its mouth, I shielded my face in fear.

The next time I opened my eyes, I saw a cockpit with a nifty looking chair in the center. I was heading into outer space, and I was alive!

I tried to tell Keith what was going on, but I was interrupted with some more flashbacks about the first person who came into this lion.

~

Two girls, one with white hair and one with dark brown hair, that looked to be in their preteens were playing around outside of a castle. They had markings on their face just under their eyes. The white haired girl had pink markings, and the brunette had sea green marks. They both wore pretty dresses, but the white haired girl wore a nicer dress.

A man with gingery red hair and a moustache walks up to the two girls and tells them, "Princess Allura, it's time for Nadia to leave. Say your goodbyes and come back inside!"

The white haired girl groaned. "Can't you talk to my dad and convince him to let Nadia stay longer? Please, Coran!"

Nadia added, "we can stay out of Uncle Alfor's way!"

Coran shook his head. "Nadia can always come back tomorrow, right?"

The two girls shrugged.

"I guess..."

The two girls grew up and visited regularly, but then, one day, the Galra soldiers began to invade the planet.

Nadia was just inside the castle when the troops made it in there. Nadia looked around for signs of anyone that were hiding, but everyone was missing.

Then, the Galra soldiers found Nadia and tried to kill her, but she outran them. The grey lion scooped her up and took her away as it resisted the Galra ships' shootings.

She began to help other planets fight against the Galra Empire, but one time, Nadia grew to be very sick.

The planet's people decided to heal her as a way to thank her for being their protector. They gave Nadia a solution that would give her the ability of being immune to any natural sicknesses from any planet.

That healed her, and she continued to stay alive for the rest of her time out in space. The grey lion faked its death when she crashed into Earth, so the Galra Empire forgot about its importance.

~

After the lion finishes, I heard Keith frantically trying to get my attention. I quickly told him, _"I'm right here. The lion was showing me things"_

Keith relaxed.

" _I was worried you died._ "

_"You know that I'm a good enough fighter to fight the Galra Empire without a lion, and my depression is not severe enough that I want to commit suicide!"_

Keith got quiet.

_"Did I say something wrong?"_

_"No. Just forget about it."_

_"No. I want you to tell me."_

Keith tried to hide a memory of him about to sacrifice himself but was saved by a guy named Lotor.

_"you do realize that I know you are trying to hide the thought. Who is Lotor?"_

Keith sighed. _"He is Zarkon's son. He worked against us before, but now, he is an ally to Voltron and the coalition_ _."_

_"What is he like?"_

_"He is very good at making a plan that seems different than what the other side is planning. He also values family since his mom and dad never cared about him."_

I got somewhat upset.

_"I guess neglect is not just an Earth problem."_

_"What do you mean?_ _"_

I paused since it was a hard topic to think about without crying.

_"I lived in eight foster homes. The only family that actually cared about me was my first. They never wanted to give me up, but they had to since they never did legally adopt me. I was ignored and physically hurt most by the people in my last home, and somehow, the police found out and took me away because of false accusations. I escaped the ward and made it to the Garrison. I stayed there ever since. I was outside when the blue lion left, and it's blastoff caused a force wave to push out. I fell back and was unconscious for a few months. I was saved by an alien woman who apparently was a cousin of a Princess. I forgot the name... Allora... Allara..."_

_"Allura...?"_

_"That's it! Anyways, we hid out for a bit, but we were found. I was unfazed by the poison gas because Galras were immune to it, but Nadia didn't survive. The Galras left thinking I was dead, and I had nothing else to do but find somewhere to stay. I found the record files and learned who you were. I learned that one of my classmates survived along with Iverson, and we were going to find out if Takashi Shirogane was able to explain what happened. He was missing, and I saw your house. That's basically my life story up to the point we met."_

Keith told me, _"just so you know, Shiro's alive. He's one of the paladins."_

I suddenly got excited. I remembered how Matt was presumed to be dead because of the Kerberos mission. If Shiro was alive, Matt had a chance of being alive too.

_"What about his crew? Is Matt okay?"_

Keith chuckled. _"You sound just like Pidge. Yes he's alive. He's a rebel fighter now."_

I began to blush as I thought about Pidge.

_"You okay?"_

I quickly tried to think about something else as I said, _"yeah. I'm good."_

Keith told me, _"it's okay to have a crush on her. You and Pidge would be amazing together! Not that I know anything about being gay..."_

I noticed Keith was getting butterflies while thinking about a guy that looked familiar. It was Lance.

_"I also think this one cadet, Lance McClain, was pretty cute."_

Keith quickly snapped, _"don't even think about asking him out."_

I teased, _"why? Do you want to?"_

I felt the anger building up inside of Keith.

_"All right. I'll stop."_

_"Thanks."_

I looked up and saw that I was being taken directly into a battle. There were other lions blasting fire, ice, and other things, but I was very unprepared. All of my knowledge about piloting was forgotten.

I heard more voices in my helmet asking what was happening and how there was another lion.

"Hi everyone! Apparently I was chosen to pilot this, but I don't know anything about you or your lions or my lion!"

The blue lion was freezing the ships, and the green lion was shooting lasers that made roots grow out of the enemy ships. Suddenly, I saw something rise on the cockpit. I stuck the bayard into the crevice of the rising piece, and I began to shoot lasers into the enemy ships.

The ships turned to rust and then dust. I started to keep firing until I realized I forgot to steer around and out of trouble zones. The moment I realized that, I was already being led into the biggest Galra ship of the bunch. I couldn't stop it, so I gave in. I knew I could get out easily anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

_**1 day later.** _

  
I was locked up like last time, and I escaped in no time like last time. I was hiding around in spots of the Galra prison looking for my lion for quite a while. That was the only way I could get out  paladins find it since the Galra ships were bugged to explode if the wrong passcode of the driver was entered.

I began to walk the hallways until I saw two guys walking around. I didn't know if they were to be trusted, so I decided to hide.

I quickly turned in a room with a high shelf, and I climbed up on the top of it. The two passed by without noticing me, so I climbed down and continued to try and find my lion.

I made it into the throne room, and I began to hear footsteps again. This time, there weren't any good hiding spots, so I hid next to the pathway leading to the thrones.

The same two guys walked in and started to talk about me and where I'm at. I began to make extra efforts to keep quiet, but I began to fidget with my armor without realizing it.

I ended up activating a hologram thing on my wrist, and that caused the two to see the light blue lighting and walk over to me. I activated my bayard and had my finger ready to pull the trigger.

Once the two were almost in front of me, I quickly stood up and pointed the gun at the two guys.

Once I actually looked at who was in front of me, I slowly lowered the gun and eventually deformed it.

“It's nice to finally meet you, Keith.”

I didn't expect him to hug me since I knew Keith wasn't a hugger, but we ended up hugging and felt really comfortable.

“Hello, Lance.”

Lance says, “wow, Keith! I didn't know your sister would be so gorgeous! Your sister is SMOKE-ing hot"

I began to blush, and then I decided to play along with the puns. "ICY what you did there! Do you remember me from the Garrison?"

Lance paused. I guessed that he was not used to people replying with puns too.

Once he thought about what I said, he suddenly remembered me, and I could see his face light up when the nostalgia kicked in.

"Yeah. I do. Your reactions to the pranks were GREY-t!"

"The fact that you haven't died yet BLUE my mind! I wonder how everyone managed to TEAL with you."

I could tell Keith was struggling with trying not to laugh.

I teasingly told him, "it's CYANtifically proven that holding in emotions can be very unhealthy."

"How do you know?”

I immediately thought of a reply, and I had to pause and make sure that I keep my laughter contained long enough to clearly respond.

"I RED about it."

Then, his emotion barricade busted down as hysterical laughter came out of his mouth. All three of us were laughing uncontrollably with tears coming down our faces.

Then, a tall, purple-skinned alien with long, white hair and elf ears rushed to us. "Keith, what is causing you to laugh so much?"

I spoke up.

"I was joking around with puns. I thought that it was a nice way to make him feel less VIOLET."

The only reaction I got from him was a small chuckle.

"I'm Prince Lotor. You must be the Mika girl."

I nodded. "That's me. Do I have to curtsy or anything...?"

Lotor shook his head. "You don't have to. Have any of you located everyone else?"

Keith nodded. "They'll meet us here any time now."

Then, I turned around as I heard approaching footsteps. There were two people coming my way. One froze as I looked at him, and the other person was darting over with open arms and tears running down her face.

"Pidge! Matt!"

Pidge and I greeted each other with a huge hug, and we began to converse with our favorite inside jokes we made up in the Garrison.

"Pete's still a papaya FISH?"

"Ya."

"Tee hee!"

Lance groaned.

“Does this actually make sense to anyone?” Pidge turned to him with an aggravated expression.

“They're inside jokes. Oh my stars! This is just as heartwarming as the time when I found my brother!”

I decided to act dumb because I didn't want Pidge to know about how I peeked at her records and talked a lot about her with Keith. “you have a brother?”

Pidge showed me the polaroid picture of Matt and her as Matt cheerfully stated, “remember how I had a sister that would never interact with us when we studied for Science club? That's her.”

I smiled as a man in black armor, a girl in pink and blue armor, a guy in yellow armor, and a man with ginger hair and some fancy clothes started to make their way around and to the group.

"I get why she wanted to keep her gender a secret, but why did you want to keep your radio chatter private?"

"I was afraid you would tell someone at first, but once I found out how much you trusted me, I didn't want to loose that. You were very comfortable with telling me everything about you, and I liked having that mutual trust cycle."

"I actually have been keeping one secret hidden from you.”

I paused to decide whether or not I was ready to confess my feelings.

“Do you know how I told you I was attracted to girls in the Garrison? Well, I was saying that to make you think I was only into girls even though I was bisexual because… well… I loved you.”

I looked around to see if anyone was visibly judging me.

“Now, I can say I'm only into girls because I know you are one.”

Pidge sighed either out of relief or out of sadness and responded with, “I actually felt the same way about you and loved you as well, but I lost my confidence when you said you were into girls. Even though I am one, I couldn't have told you that. I didn't want you to hate me for those lies since you told me almost every secret about you.”

I smiled. “I'm still open, but I understand if you aren't. I get that you're surrounded by males and only one other girl as far as I know, so I will be fine if you moved on!”

Pidge reached out her arm like she was going to do a friendly handshake, but when I extended out for our hands to meet in the middle, she pulled me closer to her and told me, “right now, I'm taken by the best person in the entire universes. Would you like to know who I'm with?”

I sighed since I thought I was just rejected, but she still continued on.

“I'm taken with you! I accept your offer of being your girlfriend. Also, from now on, we tell each other everything.”

I was at a loss of words because of what happened just about a minute before.

I began to cry tears of happiness and nod my head as everyone but Lance began to get excited for us.

Lance groaned and complained, “when will I ever get love?”

I looked over at Keith and thought to him, “ _I'll still love you either way._ ”

Keith started to look indecisive, but then he quickly thought to me, _“How do I ask someone like him out? I don't even know if he's into males!”_

I began to feed tips in as Keith made each move. “ _F_ _irst, approach him and get a conversation going. Don't use any small talk to stall because that is unnatural to him and can raise your anxiety leading you to have a higher chance of messing up and getting rejected. For you, I would recommend not getting right to the point of asking but not stalling any more than you need to. To start, get near him, and without acting too different from your normal self, tell him that someone told you he was bisexual at one point at the Garrison. Don't say that I told you though.”_

Keith did that, and Lance made the job much easier by eliminating a step.

Lance told Keith, “yeah. To be honest, it never was a phase. I'm still into both the ladies and gentlemen.” I told Keith to go straight into confessing since Keith didn't need to ask Lance if he still was bisexual. I instructed Keith to ask Lance if he could keep a secret just in case a rejection happens, and Lance responded perfectly again by agreeing.

“ _Now Keith, tell him that you are also into males and stop._ ”

Keith did that part well, and Lance nonchalantly patted Keith's back to secretly show his acceptance.

“ _The best moment to confess is right now! Tell Lance ‘I have a crush on you’ since using the word ‘love’ is too strong and if used too early like now, it could bring negative feelings in._ ”

Keith told Lance what I suggested perfectly, and Lance replied with, “same here, Mullet.”

I snickered as Lance called Keith that since I thought about calling Keith that too, and then my love spy helper secret was revealed to Lance.

He blurted out to me, “I knew Keith wasn't asking me out without his sister spying on us!”

I replied with, “at least my help was successful!”

The gingery red haired man with a nicely groomed moustache walked closer and examined my physical appearance.

“Matchmaker Mika has triumphed over Loverboy Lance in regards to romance expertise! Spectacular!”

I snickered a bit because of how interesting that nickname was.

“I was told how the royal advisor would use big words. Your name must be Coran.”

The guy nodded. He told me, “I expected you to be taller and have shorter hair. You seem to have a length around the same as the Princess!”

The girl in the pink and blue armor chuckled. “I am just very relieved since Lance won't be trying to charm me anymore. Thank you for that and for your devotion to work with the coalition, Mika.”

I nodded my head. “You must be Princess Allowra.”

She began to laugh. “It's pronounced Allura.”

I apologized for messing up, but I moved on.

“Your cousin was very brave like you seem to be.”

Princess Allura asked, “cousin? I don't remember having any… wait. I remember now. Nadia. She was supposed to visit me the day Arus was destroyed. She made it out alive?”

I nodded.

“The grey lion was originally a prototype for building the other five lions. Then, it was a statue in the castle. When Arus was attacked, Nadia bonded to the silver lion and took off. She got sick once and was healed with something that led her to be able to change her age. She hid away from Galra troops using cloaking and faking destruction for a very long time. She eventually crashed on Earth and decided to stay there where nobody knew aliens existed. She was a doctor that saved my life and kept me hidden when the Galra attacked. She eventually lost her life to the Galra Empire.”

Princess Allura noted with a voice on the verge of crying, “I am very proud of her. I know that she is gone, but she was able to survive that long without being asleep during all of it.”

The yellow paladin spoke up. “I'm Hunk. Nice to meet you.”

I said, “I know. You were in my engineering class for some time. You were so quiet, but you seemed like you made good grades.”

Hunk laughed. “I tried.”

The last person to speak up was the black paladin.

“You were a Garrison student? Were you a pilot, engineer, or a technician?”

“I was all three.”

He asked about how that was possible, and I explained to him about being an officer-in-training.

“That's something to be proud of. You can call me Shiro.” Shiro stuck his arm out for me to shake. Instead of feeling a normal hand’s squishiness as I shook, I felt a hard, metal limb as I greeted.

“So this is where you were when I had to see if you were alive in a medic tent.”

“What?”

“I was sent out to see your state when we got the chance, and you were missing in a medic tent.”

“I get it. I have one more question for you.”

“Go ahead and ask.”

“Would you like to be an official paladin of team Voltron?”

I answered with, “I don't know… what if I'm not good enough? I'm probably going to slow things down and get you guys killed! I'm not normal like you guys. I’m mentally challenged, and I've always been told that it makes me useless.”

Matt spoke up. “You were able to spot each in the labs for science club before we even started any procedures, and you definitely had better leadership qualities than the actual teachers! You dealt with a lot of stress, but you managed to keep calm despite all of that. Also, the people you had to live with and refer to as your family don't have any right to tell you who you are.”

“Then why are you doing just that?”

“You may be related to only one person of the entire group, but I can tell you that we are more qualified to be your family than anyone else. You are where you're meant to be, and our beliefs for you are completely genuine.”

Shiro added, “just because you struggle with some things doesn't mean you're not amazing at other things. Be patient with yourself because patience yields focus.”

I remembered hearing that in my head back before I was put in a coma.

“I heard that before. I didn't know where until just now. Keith has been using that saying to keep his emotions balanced. He isnt the only one. It did help me out when I was on Earth. I'll be in your group, but I apologize in advance if I end up being a negative influence.”

Hunk immediately squeezes everyone into a group hug, and for once, I ignored my claustrophobia’s frantic alerts. It was a happy moment, but all of a sudden, Emperor Zarkon’s shadow stretches over the group’s huddle.

“Sorry to interrupt your group meeting! Now, surrender the girl! She won't be a good help anyways!”

Everyone began to wonder what he did to the lion, but he told us.

“We destroyed the silver lion! It wouldn't be able to form a part of Voltron anyways!”

I still felt the bond with it, and I told Keith through my thoughts.

“He's lying. I can feel a bond still.”

“Interesting.”

“How do I command it to come?”

“I don't know.”

Galra soldiers began to come out and surround us. I began to get an inner rage feeling that I had to maintain since it could cause me to act out. “You got a plan?”

“I wish.” I thought about what to do, then I remembered something I could do.

“I have an idea.”

I changed into my Galra form and pulled out my bayard. Keith turned around and saw me.

He looked shocked, so I told him, “I’ll explain later.”

I activated my pistol, and I moved in front of everyone so that they wouldn't get hit by a bullet.

The group saw an opportunity to retreat, and Shiro shouts to me, “run now!”

I began to run to the planned escape route, but started to feel the bond with my lion weakening. I started to see directions of where it was, and without thinking, I turned and sprinted to other doors.

The moment I opened them, two Galra soldiers come out of the spot. One holds me so that I can't move, and one fires their gun straight into my chest. I shot my pistol twice and missed the soldiers, and as my body began to die, I saw where they ended up hitting.

One bullet hit Emperor Zarkon, and one hit the witch Haggar who was next to Zarkon like always.

Both fell to their deaths as the team began to rush around me and cry. The grey lion roared as it came out, and as I exhaled my last breath, the lions eyes became dim.

~

I bet you are very curious and are wondering about how I am able to let you know about this story of mine when I told you that I died. You know that I would never lie in an autobiography, so you can trust me and believe every occurrence is real, even when you read the part about my death.

Once my heart let out its last beat, I saw only black nothingness for a little bit, but after some time, the emptiness, pitch black void that stretched across my vision started getting lighter and lighter. This sight was almost like a rising sun coming from the east and shining through my eyelids from a window, but the brightness was increasing very fast almost like those videos of the daylight cycle sped up. The only difference between those relaxing videos and what I was seeing was that the videos took less than 15 seconds to show it all, but my experience felt like it would take at most 45 seconds to reach the same point. That was my guess since I was not timing anything, and eventually, the sunrise feeling started to get too bright for me to keep my eyes shut. I heard someone say, “hey, guys! Mika woke up!” as I slowly opened my eyes.

Was this all a very long and detailed dream? Was I saved by the other paladins just in time? Was this story's ending something else? I will leave you with that.

**_THE END._ **

 


End file.
